Ballet project starting on January 1st, 2011

December 29th. Time for some reflection.....

This year has probably been the best year in my life, so far. In the beginning of this year I performed and hosted concerts in Café de Concert´s own café in Oslo. The world´s first classical concert café. A dream come true. At the end of the year I had my debut concert as a pianist and composer in Carnegie Hall, with a full house and a standing ovation. A dream come true. And in between - concerts and projects all around the world. I´m living my dream. I am very fortunate, and very grateful. Therefore I will keep on living my dreams. Dreaming of life in unreal reality.

"Make your life into a dream, and make your dream your reality" - Le petit Prince.

It´s time to write my first ballet. I have had the privilige of corresponding with Margit Sandemo some time ago. Sandemo is a very famous Norwegian-Swedish historical fantasy author. She granted my request for writing a ballet based on her fabulous and adventurous "Legend of the Ice People" (Sagaen om isfolket). As far as I know, it has never been done before. But that is not why I will do it. The reason is that her stories reach out to me in a magical way. As if I am under a spell, forcing me to paint her words into music. And I have no intention of trying to undo the spell.

On January 1st 2011 I will start my work on the ballet. And on July 1st the same year I will have one hour of ballet-music ready.
It will rock your world! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Or as I tend to say -
"merry x box, go nuts - and happy moods wear"



Photo: Woland Thomas

An evening in jail

Tonight I had quite an experience, performing for a full house - in jail - at "Ila Landsfengsel", in Oslo, the state prison of Norway. I pretty much felt like Johnny Cash, although we represent different music genres. However, we represent the same message - music and stories ment to hit you straight in the heart, who ever you are, not matter what you did or didn´t do. The prisoners at the state prison opened up their hearts to classical and contemporary music and gave me a standing ovation. And then we ate together, like brothers, not sinners. For so did Jesus, with everybody. Thank you Nils Herman Hornnæss for makeing this concert possible!



Merry Christmas 2010!
Sincerely, Aksel Kolstad

The Aksel Kolstad Show at McPhail, Minneapolis

But first, I did a teaser at Torskeklubben


Torskeklubbens menu since over one hundred years: "Torsk", potato and "akevitt" (I had grapefruit juice)


The magnificant Orlyn Kringstad - can´t wait to get started on our projects, Orlyn!!






Then, a teaser at Lakselaget








The superfantastic Marit Kringstad


Then - a little recreation/imaginative ski jumping at what was supposed to be "Minneapolis Holmenkollen" a long time ago






And finally - gametime at McPhail!! One of my best concerts so far:)






The famous Cadillac Kolstad attended the concert:)


Relatives from my grandmother, Vicki and Mary were also there:)


Then we all went out to listen to the fantastic Papa John Kolstad and his wonderful musicians, before the Kolstad-clan hit the town!




I´ll be back in the summer of 2011 for a big tour - stay tuned, people of Minnesota:)

Teaser-concert at Mall of America, Minneapolis

Mall of America is - huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.




Was great fun performing in between to gigantic christmas trees :D Very, very good yamaha grand piano, by the way!!

I live at superfantastic Marit and Orlyn´s fantastic house here in Minneapolis and when I got to town yesterday Marit invited me into her supercool furniture and rug-shop, whith NORWEGIAN furniture and rugs:) Loved that!







One house-concert tomorrow, three more teaser-concerts on saturday afternoon and then, bang - showtime at McPhail concert hall :) Until then, I´m chilling out with my two new best friends that wake me up in the sweetest way every morning <3
Åse and Knut!! :D Life is good in Minneapolis!

Standing ovation in New Orleans

Who would have thought that the first concert in the US after Carnegie also would end up with a standing ovation. What a great experience!!







One of the spectators was the famous and former female top rank officer in the US Airforce, now 90 years old! She´s actually Norwegian:) She saluted me after the concert. As a former corporral, that really moved me!



Unfortunately my concert started at the same time as the Hornets´ basketball game vs the Spurs. So right after the concert I rushed over to the stadium, but couldn´t get in for the last quarter periode (of course) so I watched the rest of the game on tv from the Hornet´s store, which was also fun:)



A while after the concert the very nice Mr. Cassidy, another one of the spectators, invited me to his sister´s residence here in New Orleans, where I got famous local and home made New Orleans-food. Yummie! There I also got to meet the rest of the family - and after two, three too many plates of delicious food, I sort of fell a sleep in a veeery good chair (sorry about that, guys) !!







And then the wonderful Vidar and Lillian from the Seaman´s Church invited me out to listen to some great music, in addition to coming up with a supercool project regarding performances around the 17th of May (Norway´s national day) in New Orleans, Houston pluss a couple of places in Alabama this year!!

New Orleans

Today I came to the amazing city of New Orleans. And after some reflection I came to the conclusion that - a back yard basketball-court, a swimming pool and some urban poetry from down town is all that I need to get prepared for my concert at The Norwegian Seaman´s Chruch tomorrow at 2 pm. Great place, great people. After a quick run, shootin´ some hoops and a short dip in the pool it´s time to practise, practise, practise:)

Little Fredrikstad i New York

Kjære Fredrikstad-folk!

Nå er det på tide å ta sats og reise seg fra asken. Benytte seg av underdog-situasjonen vår. Lage historie, fremme Fredrikstad i utlandet - gjøre byen vår synlig for resten av verden for den historiske og kunstneriske perlen byen egentlig er. La oss samle våre beste krefter innen musikk, billed-kunst, teater, mat og film. For det er DET vi er gode på! Og vi må satse på det vi er GODE på, ikke fokusere på å forbedre det vi er DÅRLIGE på. Så inntar vi Manhattan og åpner "Little Fredrikstad". Med Elingaard som by-slott skal jeg sørge for at vi får en plass på Impressions of Norway-festialen i Central Park høsten 2011, som jeg er med på arrangere i samarbeid med konsulatet, innovasjon norge og moods of norway. Den lille modellen skal representere det vi kommer til å åpne kort tid etter, full sieze. Dette her er såre enkelt, mine venner. Vi har all den kunstneriske og administrative kapasiteten til å drive dette kunst-bygget. Vi har et næringsliv og handelskunnskaper som overgår det meste. Nå får vi vise hva vi er gode for da! La oss bygge videre på det Ole Bull nesten klarte, Ole Anna-staten. Nå utfordrer jeg alle dere som har noe å fare med - la oss sammen bygge Fredrikstad i utlandet! Dette var årets julegave fra meg. La oss pakke opp og sette sammen prosjektet!

God Jul og Godt nytt år!
Aksel

CdC-concert, documentary and gymnastics

Full house at my Café de Concert-concert in Askim on october 23rd. Read more about it on www.cafedeconcert.no/blog


These two are planning to make a billion bucks on a documentary about little old me - when I hit the sky;)
Espen and Siw, exited to work with you! Supergifted people!

Safe and sound back from my debut-tour in USA, Estonia and Russia, I hit the road with "Amadeus and Ole (Bull)", where I play and act Mozart for school children all over Norway. Great fun! Thank´s to Morten Brenne and Rikskonsertene! And during the intermissions between the concerts (2-3 concerts in each school) I work out as often as I can :)