Aksel Kolstad - Pianist/Composer

Grand opening on April 18th!!

2012-01-19T14:12:00.001-08:00

Yo guys! I´ll be opening a new place for Café de Concert - 150 m2 right next to the Astrup Fernley Museum in Oslo (Tjuvholmen) on April 18th at 8 pm. Save the date, it will be a blast! BMW will be exhibiting a new car every month inside Café de Concert and there will be lots of cool photo and painting ehxibitions in HUGE dimensions in addition to lots of fun concerts. And yeah - I´ll be hanging on the walls on the opening, of course :D

Exhibition for Meriliis Rinne

2011-12-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

More photos from the successful exhibiton here.

Turnes out that one of the photos from my previous "AK the new fragrance of art"-exhibition inspires for new poses :D

Sponsor Concert for BMW Fornebu Bilia

2011-12-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

On November 18th the supercool staff from BMW Fornebu Bilia with some friends came flying in on the red carpet, and "Café de Concert hosted a funky concert with Kolstad untamed on the grand piano" followed by a kick ass party! Thank you BMW Fornebu Bilia for sponsoring me!! Special thanks to Øyvind Berger!

Kolibri Musikkakademi

2011-11-16T06:24:00.000-08:00

Hi, guys! Would just like to make you aware of my good friend and wonderful pianist Andrijana Vuckovic´s music academy for up and coming youngsters! Andrijana has such an enthusiatic way of teaching that all of her studens blossom in the split of a second!
Got a kid or know somebody that´s keen on starting to lern the piano in Oslo? Tell her I said hi;)

Take a look at Kolibri Musikkakademi´s video presentation HERE

Andrijana Vuckovic, pianist and piano teacher
email: post@kolibrimusikkakademi.no
phone: +47 96 88 03 64
www.kolibrimusikkakademi.no

"World´s best wiener´s"-photoshoot

2011-11-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

Øyvind Karlsen wiener´s - for world class performances Silje Reinåmo, actress. Photos: Patrick Oldenborg

BMW and world class wiener´s

2011-11-08T04:10:00.000-08:00

Makeing the commercial videos for two of my sponsors was great fun! And the BMW 2012 640 ia cabriolet was absolutely INSANE to drive. And the super hot model Ksenia Storlykken was a thrill to work with! We had so much fun :) You steamed up Mozart, baby, thank you ;)

To watch the hot commercial click here
More photos from the shoot....

And then - since I allways serve wiener´s at my concerts at Café de Concert I just HAD to let the world know what the name of the world´s best wiener´s is: "ØYVIND KALRSEN WIENER`S". I had the privilege of working with a really great young actress in this shoot, Silje Reinåmo. You can see her in the movies in February 2012! Don´t miss her movie-debut!! She got CLASS!More photos coming!
To see the wiener-video clich here
PS: OLDENBORG FILM ROOOOOOCKS!!!!

Promo teaser for Aksel´s playgrind!

2011-10-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Click here and check it out, party people!

Aksel et son piano (et les filles)

2011-10-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

Photos from the AMAZING Trondheim Chambermusic Festival 2011

2011-09-29T03:33:00.001-07:00

@ Lade Gaard. (all photos: Trondheim Chambermusic Festival www.kamfest.no)
David Hansen, countertenor. Two funky men with funkey moods and nikey´s! David and me with Kim Kashkashian after playing two wonderful Brahms-songs.

Bouncing from festival to festival

2011-09-26T04:36:00.000-07:00

Right after my Café de Concert-festival in Oslo I headed out for Tallinn Chambermusic festival, which was awsome!
Got to play for a full house with great and my favourite Estonian musicians, Kristina Kriit, violin and Levi-Danel Mägila, cello.
AND I met the superfantastic English-Swedish-Italian contemporary virtuoso Hugo Ticciati!
And of course - went out with Nadja and Anastassia :))
Today I just came back from the superduper Trondheim Chambermusic Festival where I did 5 concerts. It was an amazeing experience!! Several of our living classical legends were there! Mindblowing! Got to get to know and perform with a lot of fantastic musicians. Especially this guy! www.guywhosingshigh.com CHECK HIM OUT!! He showed up in a funky moods of norway jacket AND Nikey shoes. Need I say that we totally rocked the stage together?;)
Also got to play with the legendary violist Kim Kashkashian and the super elegant French prizewinning string quartet, Tercea.They were SO fun to play with! GREAT quartet!!
Leaving for New York this Saturday :) C u there, party-people!!

My Café de Concert festival 2011

2011-09-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everybody, for a wonderful festival at Tjuvholmen - the artistic district of Oslo! Here are some photos from a couple of the concerts!

http://cafedeconcert.blogspot.com/2011/09/cafe-de-concert-festival-2011.html

Stranded in NYC

2011-09-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Stranded in NYC for a week after "Hurricane Irene" barely hit Manhattan wasn´t really the worst place to be stranded in, to put it that way. But on the other hand, it had some challanges: had to cancel almost 10 concerts back home in Oslo and also had to administrate the last preparations for my Café de Concert-festival in three major cities in Norway - from overseas. Wasn´t easy but thank´s the magnificant Norwegian Seaman´s Church I managed to both practise and administrate as good as I would have been able to do in Norway. Thank you my wonderful friends in NYC who also contributed to makeing my extended stay as flawless as possible!! In a way I really don´t want to leave NYC (I never do, actually), but it will be all right to come back to my Café de Concert concert-gallery @ Tjuvholmen in Oslo to practise and prepare the festival. And also to get ready for the big in festivals in Tallinn (EST) and in Trondheim (NO) in the middle and in the end of September. Yup, gonna be a kick ass month!! Leaving this Sunday. Ready for more action!

Photos: Camilla Flaatten

Memorial concert in NYC Aug 22nd

2011-08-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Memorial Concert for Oslo/Utøya in NYC was totally sold out, people were standing in the hallway, outside the concert-hall at the wonderful WMP. Thank you, everybody, for a wonderful evening in memory of July 22nd in Oslo. The Catalyst Quartet was fenomenal, and Jonas Båtstrand made the audience go completely bananas, what a wonderful NY-debut for him! Congrats!

Welcome to my festival in september :)

2011-08-09T08:38:00.001-07:00

Time to get funky, people...

A piece of my Norwegian heart to my Norwegian people

2011-07-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

A piece of my Norwegian heart to my Norwegian people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZxnNyVWrj4&sns=fb

We were wounded in the heart of our country, but we will heal our country with the hearts of our people. Here is a piece of my heart to you all, my dear brothers and sisters.

Love, Aksel

EXIBITHIONday: AK - the new fragrance of art

2011-07-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Full house, lots of photos were sold, great party, wonderful people!

Read about the project here:
http://akselkolstad.blogspot.com/2011/06/ak-new-fragrance-of-art.html

See the complete series of art-photos here
http://blog.kraftimage.com/?p=643 Buy a photo? Contact Janne Kraft: jannekraft@gmail.com / +47 97633738

Swedish press: Aksel Kolstad is a world class pianist

2011-07-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

@ Radio Swedish Radio P4 with Stenungsund´s cheif of tourism Björn Johnson (left) and Robert "Gretchen" Aug (right)

After performing at the Swedish Chamermusic Festival in Stenungsund last week I performed on Swedish national radio (P4) and made Stenungsund beat the big city of Göteborg in a competition in between the two cities. Read more about it here "Världspianist stod upp för Stenungsund - skickade ut Göteborg i kvartsfinalen"
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=4168&grupp=15461

I was honored to present my wonderful Fredrikstad Chamer Orchestra for the Swedish audience at the opening concert where Jonas Båtstrand led them through Bartok´s 6 Rumanian Folkdances, Mendelssohn violin concert in d minor (with Båtstrand as soloist) and Tchaikovskij´s String Serenade. I also world premiered my newest piece for piano solo during that concert, "L´amour invisible". Full house and a very enthusiastic audience made the concert quite unforgettable for all of us musicians. The day after I had my solo concert at the same festival. Swedish press (Göteborgsposten) wrote this:

"Kolstad is often called to be the New Norwegian Victor Borge. I would rather call him the Franz Liszt of today"

PS: Fredrikstad Chamber Orchestra all fit in Café de Concert :D

Sponsorship from Tom Wilhelmsen Stiftelse

2011-07-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

Tom Wilhelmsen Stiftelse gave me a sponsor-prize worth 35.000 NOK approx one week ago!!
Thank you so much! Yet again you have contributed to makeing my concerts and projects around the world come true! I am deaply thankful for that. And not only on my behalf, but for other musicians you also sponsor, makeing it possible for their dreams to come true also. I will go in the artistic ring and swing my deadly lefty and make you proud!
Love, Aksel

AK - the new fragrance of art

2011-06-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Aksel Kolstad ved flygelet i "Naked with reason"
fra utstillingen "AK the new fragrance of art"

"Det er på tide å vise hva kropp og nakenhet kan representere og skape uten å kun spille på sex for å selge, som så mange andre artister og kunstnere gjør. Man må ha en dypere mening med å bruke kropp i musikkbransjen. Og i mine øyne er det få som har det." - Aksel Kolstad

"It´s about time to show what "body" and beeing naked can represent and create with out using sex just to market a product, as many artists often do. One must have a deeper meaning when using "the body" in music business. And in my eyes very few have that." - Aksel Kolstad

AK - the new fragrance of art
En grensesprengende og debatt-søkende fotovernissage om Aksel Kolstad. Fredag 24 september kl 20:00 på Café de Concert (Lille Stranden 4 på Tjuvholmen, Oslo)

Salg av signerte fotografier går til støttetiltak mot mobbing i samfunnet under slagordet "Dare to be Different"

Fotograf: Janne Kraft, Christian Fredrik Gustavsen
Medvirkende: Maryam Nour
Makeup: Sølvi Strifeldt

For mer informasjon ring 91 83 66 92 eller mail aksel.kolstad@cafedeconcert.no
www.akselkolstad.com www.cafedeconcert.no

3-peat in St.Petersburg

2011-05-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

I am so fortunate to have such a great team around me in St.Petersburg - the amazing Vitaly Vasiliev and his fantastic crew!
First off was a small concert performance where I played my newest composition, Étude Norvégienne, followed by a big show for kids about Mozart. Afterwords there was time for questions from the audience. And even the youngest ones all the way down to 7 years reached out for the open mic!! Was a great moment for me to get to talk to teachers, students and small children at the St.Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts!!
Natasja Smirnova - best norwegian/russian translater I have ever heard! So theatrical at the same time!! Perfect match!Got to play with Vladimir Shulyakovskiy, fantastic musician!

The day after we headed out to the amazing Marjino Manor where I played two concerts with the supercool mezzo Katarina and
the genious Stanislav!

And my biggest and oldest fan i Russia, the lovely Valentina, came to listen to my performance. She has been to almost EVERY concert I have played in St.Petersburg since I started to perform there a couple of years ago. Valentina, I am your biggest fan too <3And after the second concert was done, I could relax and go bananas :D

Pit stop in LA before flying over to St.Petersburg

2011-05-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

After the concerts in New York I did a small but funky Kolstad-recital at the Norwegian Seaman´s Church in San Pedro, before I put the money from the gig in my pocket

and hit the road - and ended up in Disnelyand :D

And oh, yes... I rented a Mustang Sally!!

Then after just three days in lala-land I sat my sorry ass on a couple of planes and FINALLY ended up in St.Petersburg!! Concerts here tomorrow and the day after :) Will be cool. I live next to the Kazanskij Kathedral <3

2/3 at the WMP

2011-05-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Once again Musikk-Huset´s New York Music Series kicks ass in Manhattan!!!!!

Grøndahl: Scherzo

Grieg: Eit Syn, Ved Rondane, En Svane, Vaaren, En drom

Kolstad: Rachmaninov-variations, 5 Étude Norvégienne

Grieg: "Haugtussa" for trompet and piano

A full house for Nils Georg Haugland Nilsen - tenor, Sam Nester - trompet, Ingunn Elisabeth Tennøe, Heegan Lee and Aksel Kolstad - piano/host

All photos: Jostein Røraas

Standing ovation @ the Opera in Oslo

2011-04-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Photo: Jörg Wiesner/Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Performing in the brand new Opera in Oslo is something special. Especially when you do it "your way".
(all photos: Trine Sirnes)

Which was a "way" the audience seemed to appreciate very much. The Aksel Kolstad Show had over 600 on their feet by the end of my two last virtuoso show-pieces, "Deux Mourceaux Fantasque".

An amazing crowd I fell completely in love with. After I walked out from the stage I thought to my self - my green room backstage won´t fit everybody....so I figured I´d go out in the lobby and meet them all instead <3

mama and papa <3

First draft pick 2011

2011-04-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

I have found my saviour. I am thrilled to present the super effectiv and energetic Katrine Nicolaysen as my PR asisstant, secretary and the new receptionist at Café de Concert.

Katrine Nicolaysen
CellPhone: +47 936 95 300 (no)
+1 973 220 9454 (us)
email: Katrinenic@gmail.com

Welcome on board, Katrine! Let the games begin:)

House concert down town New York

2011-04-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Paulette and Will Dixon invited a bunch of their wonderful friends, artists and art-lovers to a house concert on April fool´s day, where I was lucky enough to perform on their wonderful Estonia grand piano. Paulette told me that the owner of the grand piano-brand Estonia calls her every year to ask how everything is going with the instrument. Now, THAT´S love and dedication to your curtomers, my dear friends! And it isn´t just anybody who owns Estonia, it is the magnificant world class pianist Dr. Indrek Laul - who actually came with his beautiful wife Triin to attend the house concert after Paulette had called Dr- Laul and invited them for the soirée. That´s just one of those facinating "only in New York-stories".

I loved playing on that Estonia and can´t wait to visit the Estonia-shop next to Carnegie Hall very soon!

And yes, my new kicks were on fire ;)

In the middle of the first piece I performed a little prima ballerina appeared, all of a sudden :)

After I finished my CD´s were sold to the wonderful audience!

Then, I started kissing Paulette, for beeing such an angel!

Then, I started kissing Dr. Laul, for beeing a genious!

And then...well....I really can´t blame it on the alcohol either, since I don´t drink...
Timothy J. Hunt works for the legendary Tom James clothing-design. We were talking about makeing some funky suits for a performance :)

With me at the concert was my newly hired secretary and PR assistant Katrine Nicolaysen. She´s a locomotiv of guts and creativ ideas in addition to beeing super-systematic, which is a dream come true for me in these hectic days of my carreer. More about the wonderful Katrine in a separat blog coming soon :)

After lots of fun at the party, the Kolstad-entourage à 4 went out...actually next door - to the supercool russian Mari Vanna !! :)

1of 3 at the WMP

2011-04-01T08:12:00.002-07:00

All photos: Michael Holtermann

The staff of the Norwegian music publisher Musikk-Huset A/S have visions, they are creative and bold. Two days ago they just launched a New York Music Series at the wonderful WMP (Workshop for music performances), down town New York - with the intention of introducing historical and contemporary Norwegian music to NYC. And the New York City-audience filled up the concert hall when PUBLIQuartet and I played ball in NBA jerseys and Moods of Norway-design with Grieg, Debussy, Kolstad, Webern and Scubert.

PUBLIQuartet consist of: Jessie Montgomery and Curtis Stewart, violins, Nick Revel, viola and Amanda Gookin, cello. And guys - you look AWSOME in Moods of Norway!!!!

As host, this was my introduction:
"Ladies and gentlemen of the NBA music lover audience. Welcome to something that might look like a basketball game, but it´s more of a game of music rather than a game of sports. However, we´d like to show you the althetizm in music, and the music in sports.

I have allways dreamt of becoming an NBA basketball player. But I guess I was to short. I´m Norwegian. We´re Vikings. My ancestors were very short. But never the less, I DID play basketball when I was younger. And I realized that it ain´t really that much of a difference bethween the game of basketball and the game of music. They both need presition, creativity, teamwork, technical ability and artistic performances"

More photos and videos from the actual performance coming soon, so stay tuned :)
Also - check out this weeks news letter by Michael Holtermann
http://holtermanndesign.com/HDnews/2011/3/
Oh, and ps: Next concert at the WMP nr 2 of 3, is on May 20th at 7 pm. Starring the Norwegian soprano Isa Katharina Gericke:)

Unforgettable concert for Buduuar, at Gloria in Tallinn

2011-03-27T07:31:00.001-07:00

The fantastic Marge Rahu wrote a supercool article about me in this months edition of the Estonian women´s magazine Buduaar. And then she organized a mindblowing solo concert for me a couple of days ago in the magnificant Gloria with an awsome crowd which really made me feel like a rock star. What more can a man dream of right before turning 30!!

Espen Sørby, director of the documentary beeing made of me at the moment (yes, I let him use one of my superhero moods of norway suits), next to Marge Rahu, creator and director of the amazing Buduaar.

Yes, and the amazing Marge....

Marge has a passion for dance as well, so she also invited my two favourite ballerinas, Anastassia Savela and Nadezda Antipenko to do their Harlekin-coreography we did in the Estonian Concert hall last October:) I also got to perform with the famous singer Merlyn Uusküla during the concert! (check out the photos from Buduaar.ee)

And after announcing the last piece for the evning....

The crowd went bananas!! After many years the dream of a young boy from little Fredrikstad in Norway had come true! He had become a clasiscal rock star <3

For real;)

Check out more of the supersexy photos from the concert here:
http://buduaar.ee/Article/article/galerii-buduaar-tahistas-sunnipaeva-aksel-kolstadi-eksklusiivse-show-ga
Marge - I owe you! <3

The Aksel Kolstad Show, back to its roots

2011-03-07T06:36:00.000-08:00

After touring once around the world with The Aksel Kolstad Show, I decided to come back to the roots where the show originally was created, in Oslo, one year ago this month!

Check out http://cafedeconcert.blogspot.com/2011/03/aksel-kolstad-show.html to see photos and read more about the concert that litterary "tore the rim down!!"

Gallery Café de Concert Oslo - grand slam opening

2011-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my studio <3

Aksel Kolstad / Café de Concert
Lille Stranden 4
0250 Oslo

http://cafedeconcert.blogspot.com/2011/02/gallery-cafe-de-concert-grand-slam.html

Opening my own atelier/ a new Café de Concert

2011-02-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Café de Concert concerts in the front room. I´ll be sitting practising and composing in the other room.
I hired two great receptionists. Life is great - come enjoy it with me at the Café de Concert Gallery in Oslo.
Café de Concert´s got a brand new look! So do I, with glasses from Mojord & Thoresen. Makes me look at things with a brand new perspective.

Don´t miss the grand opening on February 18th, dear friends! Red carpet, champagne, BMW-cars, stars from the music industry performing, glam and lots of fun! Litimed invitations, so please email aksel.kolstad@cafedeconcert.no for reservations asap!

Read more about it on www.cafedeconcert.no/blog

Ballet project starting on January 1st, 2011

2010-12-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-18T02:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

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 :)

The Mad Cow photoshoot

2010-11-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

by Moa Alexandra Engelbrektsson

Sponsorship with BMW in Oslo

2010-10-30T04:33:00.000-07:00

Through out history many great rock-star (especially rappers) have gotten a sponsorship-deal with a major car company. AND SO HAS THIS FUNKY CLASSICAL PIANIST :) And in my opinion, the very best car brand! With the kindness of the region-chief of BMW in Oslo, at Bilia, Mr. Øyvind Berger cut me a superfunky deal makeing it possible for me to drive around in a superflashy BMW 1-series, white and smooth batmobile. I am so grateful!!

There´s a huge BMW event coming up, where BMW is presenting one of its new cars. I´m ready, Mr. Berger, just say the time and place - my engine is on fire !!

Was at the top of my game in St.Petersburg

2010-10-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

Right after the concert in Tallinn on the 16th, I partied until morning and took a cab to the airport and flew to St.Petersburg where the consul general of Norway so kindly had booket me in at the legendary Astoria Hotel for the evening. At 7 pm 350 Russians had come to almost fill up the wonderful Chapella Concert Hall, where two TV channels also had come to learn more about this savage, musical viking from Norway and his crazy shit. Thank you Vitaly Vasilievitsj and Rune Aasheim, for believeing in me!

Full house in Tallinn

2010-10-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

So just a few days after my Carnegie Hall debut I flew a cross the atlantic to perform in the wonderful Estonian Concert Hall in Tallinn. 200 tickets were sold out two days before the concert, and all in all there were over 400 who came to see the Aksel Kolstad Show on Sunday October 16th. And ps, this was the extravaganza show where I dress up as a woman and sing soprano arias, dance the nutcracker and all sorts of funky shit. Speaking of which...I started the show by showing two videos of me playing Schubert in a Lakers-jacket and my famous grand jump/fall over a grand piano and then...I came out on stage dancing to Kiss by Prince! Now THAT gave me a kick :D (I possibly surprised a couple of the more conventional spectators in the audience, hahaha....) The Tallinn-show also had a special treat with a world premiere of my 5 fashion interludes with fashion costumes designed by my good friend Svetlana Puzorjova was shown by models from Beatrice Model Agency and also the coreography of Savela and Antipenko when I performed my Harlekin-variations over Bach! Didn´t get the photos from the photographers yes, but will post them asap! After the concert I invited the audience out for an after-party at Vabadus...and then we had another after-party at Nano. I just love meeting new people and partying with them after concerts:)

A full house at my Carngie Hall-debut!

2010-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

(all photos Berit Hessen)

A completely full house at my Carngie Hall-debut! Standing ovation! AND an encore! I couldn´t possibly ask for more. I am so happy!! This is something I will never forget, I made my dream come true, and now I am living my dream. I have allways been a dreamer...
The concert was delayed almost 20 minutes because people were still coming in the concert hall after 7:30 pm, it was an extremely long line outside Carnegie, just like a rock concert! There was even a line for those who hadn´t bought tickets in advance, in case of cancellations. Carnegie wrote both my producer and me the day after that they were impressed by the whole event. And the staff backstage said they had never experienced anything like this concert before. Now that´s something to put on my resumé:)

Thank you Musikk-Huset, for believeing in me and sponsoring my debut! Thank you Susan Blond Inc. for beeing a wonderful and loving publisist! Thank you Anna Gutto for beeing a kick ass producer! Thank you Norwegian Seaman´s Church for letting me practise on your wonderful Boston and work in your library! Thank you Jeffrey Gurian for polishing my comedy act! I DID IT:)

Unfortunately it is not allowed to take photos inside of Carnegie, but you pretty much get the impression of how the atmosphere was during the concert from the wonderful photos by Berit Hessen from the afterparty:)

See all of the 120 photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/berithessen/AkselCarnegieHall?authkey=Gv1sRgCKbSqr3w_bOzXQ&feat=email#

Packed at Caffe Vivali

2010-10-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening was a super Café de Concert concert at Caffe Vivaldi, New York! I performed with the magnificant Curtis Stewart and Amanda Gookin. Kicked the party off with Bartok´s 6 Rumanian dances, the continued with Schumann´s Fantasiestück before wrapping up with the piano trio by Debussy which he wrote when he was 18, just a teenager! The crowd at Vivaldi was great as usual, and after Debussy - the audience turned in to a rock concert-audience! Rock on!!

See the rest of the photos on www.cafedeconcert.no/blog

Successfull stand up debut at the Comic Strip

2010-10-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

I started out my gig at the legendary COMIC STRIP last night flexing my chest muscles...I guess I caught the crowd off guard - cause they went bananas!! :) Got it all on tape, will post it in a bit! I actually think I nailed it!! :) The atmosphere was hysteric !! :)

"The Comic Strip comedy club" launched the careers of Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler and Chris Rock!

Thank you Jeffrey Gurian for final polish on my act - and for getting me the spot at the legendary Comic Strip. I am SO looking forward to work more with you!!

Richard Tienken and Jeffrey Gurian - thank you for believeing in me!!

My mother and father flew in that same day with some friends from Norway, I am so happy they got to see this!

After the gig Jeffrey took me out in the Meatpack district to see some of his wonderful friends! I´m performing a Café de Concert concert tonight at Caffe Vivaldi, Sunday is Carnegie-time. I just love NYC!!

Host for Impressions of Norway in New York 2010

2010-10-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

Photo: Rick Shupper

This was probably the wildest and coolest presentation of Norwegian Culture in New York ever, arranged by Innovation Norway in downtown New York. Moods of Norway, Madcon, The Flying Culinary Circus and me. Boy, were we on fire!!

Photo: Rick Shupper

I started off with a presentation of the fabulous Moods of Norway-three, then I had the previledge of makeing room for the crazy and genious Flying Culinary Circus. Then I was honored to show my ass on a big screen in addition to presenting my Carnegie Hall debut with some video material. In the end I let Madcon do the rest - which ended up with a superfantastic dance-party for Moods, the chefs and me on stage with the groovin´ Madcon! Man, what a night!

Photo: Rick Shupper

Photo: Rick Shupper

Photo: Berit Hessen

Photo: Berit Hessen

Photo: Berit Hessen

Photo: Berit Hessen

My first solo album out now :)

2010-09-27T11:28:00.001-07:00

It´s the Carnegie Hall debut-program, recorded live from Gamle Logen in Oslo on March 24th 2010. Price: 150 NOK Email, facebook, text or call me to get a CD:) aksel.kolstad@cafedeconcert.no, +47 91 83 66 92

I got balls, I´ll give my self that.

2010-09-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Read all about it on the Café de Concert-blog, and you HAVE to watch the video...brace your self!!
http://cafedeconcert.blogspot.com/2010/09/concert-on-bridge-in-fredrikstad.html

The Aksel Kolstad Show on the road. First stop, Tønsberg!

2010-09-10T15:41:00.001-07:00

Was great to perform in the beautiful Villa Møllebakken, especially with Frank Beck sitting on the first row.
Beck is one of Norway´s most respected motivators, in my eyes the very best, and he sure got me motivated all right!!
I have been so previleged to have Frank Beck follow me the past ten years, giving me wake up-calls, pointing in right directions and makeing me understand what I am good at and what I can do even better! I take my hat off for you, Frank! This concert was dedicated to you!

After the first half, since Frank was in the audience - I just had to show off another cool Moods of Norway suit!

After the concert, so many lovely people went backstage and touched my hair! (Cause I told them my hairdresser had put on some silky oil which made it super smooth!! I dig it when the fans pet me on my head!! )

And this (dette tok bare kaka, ass!!) was just the coolest gift I have EVER gotten from someone in the audience! Check it out, guys! It´s a custom made "piano/melodica/moods of norway tracktor-painting"!! How cool is THAT?!?! WORD!

Press release of "The Aksel Kolstad Show in Carnegie Hall"

2010-09-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

The day started off meeting up with, and getting to know a wonderful team which is doing a documentary on me.
A camera following you around every corner is...actually something I TOTALLY dig! So it´s a very cool experience, this documentary-project! Lots of memories came back to me when I walked into the small concert hall in the middle of the heart in Oslo - Oslo Musikklæreforeningens lokaler, Josefinesgate. This is where i held my concerts when I was a child. Class-concerts, christmas-concerts, summer-concerts, and on all of them - in addition to playing standard repertoire, I was allways given the opportunity to play some of my own music. Thank you Eva Sandvik Stugu, for beeing such a great inspiration to me in my youth!

This time I was here for my press release, presented by Musikk-Huset (my publisher), which has given me 100.000 NOK to support my Carnegie Hall concert as presenting sponsors. A full house of wonderful people came to get a small preview of the Carnegie Hall program. And boy, was that great fun:)

Pit stop in Tallinn

2010-08-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

I arrived to my apartment in Tallinn at the magnificant Nano Café yesterday. Yes...I actually rent an apartment on top of the coolest café in the world! Had several meetings yesterday and today regarding my big concert in the Estonian Concert Hall on October 16th. And today I went to the Opera to rehears with Nadja and Anastassia. They are coming to my festival in Fredrikstad in september and then they are also performing on my concert here in Tallinn in October. Bach + Kolstad + pointy shoes = something you GOT to see;)

Honored with the Elkjøp-award

2010-08-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Elkjøp is a huge chain in Norway (exists in Greece also, I believe) for electronic devices of all sorts with very high quality. They just opened a brand new mega-store in my hometown, Fredrikstad. I had the previlige of receveing their "opening-scholarship" worth 50.000 NOK (approx 8300 UDS) today and gave a short recital in the store! THAT was fun! I used all of the money to buy a grand piano (the one in the photo) to one of my favourite cafées in Fredrikstad - Verdensspeilet Café. As of today it is the official Café de Concert festival-café, which actually is hosting the 5th annual festival this September 16th, check out www.cafedeconcert.no/festival
Verdensspeilet Café, congratulations with your new grand piano, and well done with the renotavion of the oldest cinema in Fredrikstad into a superfunky and new, open space in your café! Elkjøp, thank you so very, very much! Special thank´s to Christian Brekke and Anders Foss from Elkjøp! I am honored to recieve your award! And MAN did my new Jordan Nike´s suit your floor!!

Choosing new concert shoes

2010-08-19T10:16:00.001-07:00

One stop in the Nikey store on 5th avenue made me go completely bananas!!
But in the end I ended up with the new Air Jordan´s - feels out of this world!!

Comic Strip and Shabana Rehma

2010-08-14T08:24:00.001-07:00

At my Carnegie preview-concert the other day I met the famous comic writer Jeffrey Gurian who yesterday took me to the the historical Comic Strip and also introduced me to the legendary Richard Tienken, owner of the Comic Strip and former manager of Eddie Murphy for 11 years. The Comic Strip is the place where every major comedian today started out. Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, David Chapell, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld....soon to be Aksel Kolstad??

Yesterday night was also the premiere of the Norwegian-Pakistani performance artist and comedian Shabana Rehma´s show "For Kingdom and Fatherland". The story of her life served to the audience as hors d'oeuvres of pureb blood, sweat and tears. Shabana - you got balls! Respect!

After a great reception at Kristin Dahle from Innovation Norway, Jeffrey pulled other with his Jag and took the Norwegian mafia out on town!

World Basketball Festival kick-off with Jay-Z

2010-08-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

So after the Dime Magazine-article Susan Blond Inc. thought that we might want to follow up some more regarding my love for the game, which brought me to the kick-off of the World Basketball Festival in Radio City Hall with the USA Basketball-team showing off in addition to spectacular dancers, gymnasts and marching bands. Awsome show!

And then, the roof-top came off....
Now I know, this city belongs to Jay-Z!

And PS: If you ever want to hire a publicist in NY - Susan Blond Inc. makes it happen!!

Successfull Carnegie preview-concert at WMP

2010-08-12T08:07:00.001-07:00

People started to come at 6:30 pm to mingle and where having a great time at the wonderful WMP, Workshop for Music Perofmances - my new home in New York.

At 7:15 pm EST I was online on UStream, having an interview with Eric Wielander from my creative publicist Susan Blond Inc.

And at 7:30 pm spitfire Kolstad started his attack;) I had a great time on stage and the audience seemed to have so too!

Dime Magazine was there and posted an article the morning after, that was cool!
http://dimemag.com/2010/08/aksel-kolstad-where-basketball-meets-classical-music/#comments

WMP is one of the best venues I have performed in, which also reflects the magnificant crew working there. Top notch musicians which also have a brilliant mind for music business. Dear friends in Europe, especially you in Norway, get your asses over at WMP to perform and mingle with the right people in NY!!

www.wmpconcerthall.com

A day in the Hamptons

2010-08-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

After tons of meetings, hours of rehearsing and a lot of working out in central park since August 3rd , my wonderful producer Anna Gutto suggested I should come out to the Hamptons yesterday, to relax a bit in between work hours on Saturday´s to do list. And what a great idea that was...

But of course I had to do a little propaganda for my Carnegie preview-concert this upcoming Tuesday, handing out invitations and business cards on the beach to cool local people!

Anna also introduced me to the super funky Hampton Music Store and its very cool owner. There is absolutely no doubt,
I´m gonna play a couple of Café de Concert-concerts here either this or next year!! It´s like a store made into a livingroom!! Totally dig it! Feel´s like playing at home!

After all of Saturday´s administrative work was done (and thank you Anna, for fixing and manageing to book my maniac-cross atlantic round-trip concert banana-crazy tour-ticket) I went out in the Hamptons...

One old Steinway out the door, one new Yamaha in da house

2010-08-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a little story about one of yesterday´s events in "casa del musica mafia"...

Starring:

My old Steinway - actually this was the first grand Steinway and Sons sponsored Café de Concert with in 2003 through the legendary Thron Irby....a lot of history and concerts bewteen this old lady´s keys...
My new Yamaha (man, what a machine!!)
Christiania Transport
Pianoverkstedet, Holthe og Bakke AS
Aksel Kolstad (lucky bastard)
Jan Gunnar Sørbø (another lucky bastard)

My precious....

Check out my fanpage on facebook (Aksel Kolstad) for videos of me and my new machine;)

The exotic Fyrlyd Festival, Lista/Farsund (Norway)

2010-07-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

These last couple of days I have had the pleasure of performing at the Fyrlyd Festival in the very south of Norway, at Lista and in Farsund - both close to Kristiansand. The artistic directors of the festival, Ingvild Koksvik Amundsen and Lars Jakob Rudfjord - impressed me with innovative ideas, great concert halls and a most wonderful way of reciveing their artists!

This festival hosts a lot of great musicians from many genres, it´s worth wild getting down here in the south of Norway to experience the wild and untamed nature of Lista and Farsund, people! And last but not least, to experience the wonderful concerts in the coolest places ever - not to speak of where the artists spend their time between he concerts!!

Allways a great pleasure to play with Bjarne Magnus Jensen! "Husan" - Great concert hall in Farsund!!

Koksvik and Rudfjord are not only administrating the whole festival, but also performing. They are both extremely gifted musicians with something really special to offer. Check it all out at www.fyrlyd.no !!

After my last concert I was given this little airplane engine by the festival to cruse around in and enjoy the fantastic nature of Lista. Now THAT´S a festival which kicks ass!!

I also made friends quickly, as you can see...

Photoshoot with Filippo Caroti for the October-show in Tallinn

2010-07-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have had the previlge of meeting two abnormally gifted and interesting dancers from the ballet at the Opera in Tallinn, Anastassia Sav and Nadezda Antipenko - and also the very famous Italian photographer Fillipo Caroti. Combined with one of Harri´s old MG´s the result was obvious - a supercrazy photoshoot on a basketball court with a funky old piano which Helen managed to get a hold of from the most generous Heiki from Reval pianos, one very original pianomuseum in Tallinn. And yes - all of the people involved here are of course members of the creative mafia in Tallinn! These photos were just taken with my camera. Just to give you a glimps of what you are to expect - I tell you, the edited result of Caroti will blow your expectations all the way to the moon and back again.

Colorful trio in Tallin

2010-07-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of performing several concerts in Estonia this time with two absolutely wonderful musicians, Kristina Kriit (violin) and Levi-Danel Mägila (cello). Kristina normally works in the orchestra in the opera in Tallin, Levi in Tallin Symphony Orchestra. More concerts are awaiting us this fall, hopefully as colorful as the ones we did this time! Thank you guys, you make the concert stage a better place for anybody performing with you:)

And yes...when we performed in Pärnu last night at our 10 pm-concert, I just had to leave my bag next to the white grand during the concert. We are all athletes!!

PS.: I sort of forgot to turn off my phone, which was lying in my bag. This I remembered when Kristina and I were in the middle of the second movement of Beethoven´s Spring Sonata. Never has any second movements been more ecxiting, I tell you that! Luckily nobody decieded to call me last night, much appreciated!!

Unforgettable Café de Concert-concert at Nano, Tallin

2010-07-08T03:59:00.001-07:00

Despite the fact that the semifinals between Spain and Germany was going on at the same time as the concert, over 100 people found their way to the wonderful backyard of Nano. Read more about it on www.cafedeconcert.blog

First Café de Concert-concert in Tallin

2010-07-07T05:04:00.000-07:00

Full house at Café de Concert´s first concert in Tallin, at the wonderful "Museum".
Read more about it on www.cafedeconcert.no/blog

You are what you walk

2010-07-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

Row 1 from left:
Concert-shoes
Nikey and Puma basketballshoes - I wear them on stage and when I play basketball. I also wear the Puma in everyday life. So do I with the three others. The first converse shoes are "moods of norway"-converse which I often wear with the suits from "moods". Converse was also the first brand my parents bought me for playing basketball when I was 7. The love for converse will allways be there. The last pair of converse is in silver, cause I like to shine. On stage and in life in general. When I go out dancing, which I love to do - you allways see me in the silver converse, shaking it makeing the silver sparkle like James Brown doin´ it on stage. When ever James Brown is heard, I am seen on the dance floor. I love funk music. I also dig Earth wind and fire, Bee Gees and of course Prince.

Row 2 from left
Gershwin- and golden shoes
I started wearing the black and white ones when I did my Gershwin solo recitals and when performing the Gershwin piano concertos with orchestra. Gives me that old school feeling. They are also my favorite dancing shoes in weddings! The golden shoes makes me feel like a gold medal winning athlete, wearig the medal on me feet, and makeing everybody see wich path I have taken. The golden one.

Row 3 from left
Beach, water central park and Brazil
Beach sandales - I grew up next to the sea. I love the beach and can spend a whole day next to the sea doing absolutely nothing, or absolutely everything one would need to do in day. If I need to practise, I just bring my music scores with me to the beach, and read it while the sun is flirting with my skin.

Blue Helly Hansen shoes. Actually made for sailing - in august this year I´m organizing a Café de Concert sailboat regatta, with the Café de Concert logo on all sails.
(Read more about the concept here www.cafedeconcert.no) I also wear them on my chamber music festival in the Caribbean sea, we often perform on sailingboats. Need to have a good grip on the floor - and on the piano pedals.

Old school tennis shoes - comfortable, allways cool to wear. These are probably the ones you see me in the most, strolling down the street with my smokeing notebook and my pencil on fire, writing down new ideas and music. You can also see them one on top of the other when I am sitting on benches in parks. Trying to hear what the benches have to say. Can you imagine how many secrets benches all over the world know? How many love stories, tragedies, proposals, confessions and international secrets don´t they know of? Imagine if benches could talk...I love to wonder off in parks. Physically and mentally. Yes, these ones are definetly my walk in the park-shoes. See you in Central Park on Sunday morning?

Brazilian style - Statement. If you are wondering about which brand for man which has the coolest shape, most stylish colors and feel like female hands massageing your feet while walking? The answer is simple. Ferracini.

Row 4 from left:
I am Norwegian
A couple of months every year you see me in my cross country skiing-shoes, skiing in the Norwegian forests and on mountains, jumping around in deep snow in my Helly Hansen orange snow shoes or
you probably see me on my ass after a terrible fall on the ice with my ice skates. I must admit I am not a world champion on the ice, even if my skates were in gold - but I love it. Simply love ice-skateing! Last time I went ice-skateing in Central park I was skateing with a former ice-skateing queen. She did all these funky jumps and stuff. Everybody was clapping and admiering what she did. I saw the people, I heard the clapping - I went for it.
I flew through the air like nobody ever before. Everybody went quiet when I was floating helplessly in space. I landed. Not like Bambi on ice, more like Ferdinand the Bull. And I landed on my iphone, in my chest pocket. The audience went crazy, clapping more than ever. Laughing their asses off. So did I. I stood up, took a bow, and got several new friends that day. God, how I love ice-skateing!

The phenomenon Harri Tiidus

2010-06-27T22:07:00.001-07:00

I´d like you to get to know this guy called Harri. He´s Estonian and lives in Tallin. When ever he opens his mouth it´s either with mindblowing information about something supersmart or so funny that you really don´t know what hit you, you just burst out into laughter. Sometimes he even makes you laugh without opening his mouth. Just by looking at you. Harri is one of those people which is blessed with the talent of beeing talented at absolutely everything he does. Just now he has his own garage where he fixes old cars - Pimp my ride MTV, you got a thing or two to learn from this guy! But there is something more to this Harri Tiidus than his wonderful cars and more I can explain on paper. Harri is a conceptual person - you can even see it in the way he fixes his cars. When ever he gets an idea, the idea turnes into a conceptual flavour not represented in the colors of the rainbow. Harri paints with his own colors. Amazing. When ever you are in Tallin, look him up and get a taste of a genious mind. Harri and I are now planning to have an orchestra perform in his garage. And I´m makeing some sketches for a piece for orchestra and a car/motorcycle soloist... And PS - when I´ll be in Talin next week I´ll definetly be renting one of Harri´s cars. Need a ride?;)

Upcoming concert at Nano, Tallin

2010-06-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

In one week I´ll be performing in the wonderful and very original Nano Café in Tallin, which I wrote about earlier.
When I was there recently I had a very interesting meeting with Beatrice, the Nano-entrepeneur and model agent, Annely Abel, a supersmart catch from Innovation Norway, Pille Lill Music Foundation, CdC´s super effective producers in Estonia, Svetlana Puzjorjova, a yet undiscovered ultra gifted designer and Helen Löhmus, probably Estonias most productive creative soul - which knows the whole world, and also has it in the palm of her hands. In october we will all collaborate on stage under the Aksel Kolstad Show with some pretty wild ideas! Look forward to it, guys!!

Svetlana will be blogging about one of the projects for the concert on my blog so you can follow the developement of our idea! Will be in Tallin from July 4th until July 15th. Performing chambermusic in Tallin and in Pärnu with great Estonian musicians, looking very much forward to that!

Beatrice, left, Svetlana, right.

But right now, I´m chillin´ in Dalyan in Turkey with my for ever young and super sporty mum and dad. Relaxing and prepareing for new tasks. I travel much these days - in monkeyclass as often reffered to (with one adventurous ecxeption...) But when ever I travel with papa mafia - we travel 1st class. Dad, I take my hat off for you!!

An unforgettable flight to Tallin

2010-06-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

The "Norwegian"-airplane leaving from Oslo to Tallin on June 15th unfortunately got hit by a vehicle on the ground. We had to change aircraft and the very nice crew wondered if somebody would volunteer to eventually sit in maybe not so confortable seats, due to the smaller plane we had to change to. Of course I said yes - and boy was I happy I did!! The most wonderful and super skilled pilots Petter and Lars made this trip - like a trip I am sure no drugs on this planet can match!! I am also sure everybody that didn´t volunteer were quite sorry when they saw where I got to sit in the end...mohahahaha!!

Another lucky guy was Ulf - Ulf is an underdog pokerplaying supernice guy really hitting it off these days, he just won a huge tournament online, bringing him to the big league in Tallin. All the best to you, Ulf! (Hm, maybe I should invest some money in this kid!)

Having said that - there is one more thing that has to be said. Petter and Lars - when Café de Concert get´s its own Café de Concert-plane, YOU will be hired as pilots! (PS: we just bought a BMW, so we´re getting there!!)

Love you guys! Thank´s for beeing such amazeing people! Norwegian should be proud to have you on their team!
And MAN, was that a great landing, Lars!!

Russia in retrospective

2010-06-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

Vitalij Vasilievitch and his wonderful crew consisting of his son Artem and Artem´s cousin Elena - is doing an absolutely marvellous job in Russia, produceing great concerts with some outstanding musicians. In addition to that Vasilievitch has a vision and a force greater than most cultural entrepeneurs. His will to unite and collaborate is remarkable. And because of that Vasilievitch gets done more than most people can handle with two hands only.

It was a great pleausre to work with him, and this is just the beginning of many more projects in Russia, lead by "Vasilievitch and his magnificant duo".

This September I will envite musicians from Vasilievitch´s inner pocket and present them in my Café de Concert festival in Fredrikstad, Norway. If you have the chance to be there, don´t miss it!

Check out what Russian TV made out of the last concert in Pskov:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2BjTzHH7Jk

Final concert in Pskov

2010-06-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

After driving from St.Petersburg to the concert in Novgorod in 3 hours, a 4 hours road trip awaited us the day after.
As you can see, Artem (one of the fabulous producers - more on them in my next blog) didn´t quite know in which direction he´d point out the way to Pskov after we had driven for a while, so I guess he just posed for the camera:)
Igor, our magnificant camerman, drove us the whooole time! Igor - you are the man! And a man of action - cause we really
didn´t know where we were going....

Never the less, we made it in the end!
And hey - I got to play in front of a castle!!!! I´d drive anywhere for that!
Some last minute tuning needed to be done after a TV-interview, and then Pskov got to know this shy musician from Norway.

Many thank´s to the wonderful translator Valeria Isaeva for her outstanding english and super funky shoes!!

MAN, what a tour this has been! Many, many thank´s to Vitalij Vasilievitch and his magnificant crew! I´ll let all of you readers in on just how fantastic they are, and what superb work they do for fine arts in Russia in my following blog. And then, maybe some unofficial photos from the tour...what do you say guys? Ready for some party pics? Well see ;)

Playing on Rachmaninovs home court

2010-06-10T13:49:00.001-07:00

Novgorod - the home town of Rachmaninov, and so many other historical personalities and events! Before I went on stage I made sure Rachmaninov knew exactly where he had me. With my hat off. Then I put on my Nike´s and grooved as much as I could in Novgorod Philharmonic Concert Hall, hopeing that Rachmaninov would shake it in his grave! At least it made the audience get up out of their chairs at the end of the concert, that was fun :) Next stop Pskov - after a 4 hour roadtrip tomorrow morning. Gospodi!!!

P.S.: The dude with the shield...was the Danish King Rurik, who freakin´ ruled all of Russia almost 1000 years ago! Damn....Respect to the Danes!

And these bells made Rachmaninov groove in his famous c sharp minor prelude...

Mozart and Gershwin in the Catherine Palace

2010-06-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

A full house was waiting for me in a concert hall covered in gold. Yes, I felt as alive as never before. My heart was beating faster than ever, but once I heard the first chords of Mozart in the orchestra I dissapeared into another world. Yesterday night I felt totally inspired by everything here in St.Petersburg, so I wrote one cadenza for each movement in Mozart´s piano concerto nr. 11 in Rachmaninov-style, which I performed for the first time this evening at the Catherine Palace in Pushkin. The audience seemed to like it as they shouted bravo already after the first movement. That sure inspired me even more :) We finished off the concert with Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. The ochestra was super funky and the conductor, my very good friend Mikhael, was totally awsome! Lovely audience, absolutely lovely!! It´s 3 am in the morning now, and I need to pack my bags and get some sleep before I set off at 8 am for a solo performance in Novgorod in the evening. "I love this game" :)

Rehersal and pressconference

2010-06-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today I had the first rehersal with the orchestra and after that there was arranged a pressconference in St.Petersburg Center of Culture, where I met some very interesting people! The Norwegian Counselor was also there, very cool guy! Second rehersal with orchestra tomorrow and then I´m plannig to rock around the clock at the summer palace of Ekaterina on the 9th with Mozart and Gershwin. Great conductor, by the way - will write more about him later! And what do you know - at the hotel I am staying at I found a good upright piano the hotel so kindly allowed me to practise on, so now I don´t have to walk more than to floors down, before I see my beloved black and white keys...Man! I might get fat from all of this luxurious practising...so time for some sit-ups!

Do all trainstations in St.Petersburg have concert halls??

2010-06-06T09:04:00.001-07:00

Ok...This just blew my mind!
Today was my first day practising in St.Peterburg. When I first heard that the piano was located in a old trainstation, I sort of thougt to my self...weeeell, I´m allways up for adventures, so why not see where this one takes me! And then I walk into the trainstation...and up these majestic stairs (going...what the f...??) - and then this grand concert hall seduced my eyes in a second. It turns out that even Richard Strauss has been performing here. So I said: Ok, I can manage to practise here for a couple of hours...!!!!

...and ps: St.Petersburg is amazeing!!

Three scholarships, Carnegie Hall and St.Petersburg in a flash

2010-06-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Today I came to the wonderful city of St.Peterburg! Rehersals with the orchestra doesn´t start before on the 7th, so I have a day or two to relax and get around a bit in the city. I was here for the first time in 2006, but this town makes you breathless everytime you set fot on it, I can tell you that! Yesterday was just unbelivable! In the morning I got a scholarship for my Carnegie-debut from Wilhelmsen Shipping worth 4680 USD! And yes, it´s now official and legal to annouce that I am makeing my debut in Carnegie Hall this October 10th! Don´t miss it, folk´s :) And if that´s not enough - later that same day as I was given yet another scholarship worth 7810 USD for one of my projects in Norway!! I am not allowed to tell from whom I got it from or for what I got it for - yet... But it sure made my day like no other day ever before!!:):) Earlier this week Kari and Harald Tybring Gjedde gave me a scholarship worth 1560 USD, also for my Carnegie-debut. My oh my, am I going to make the money worth it once I get up on that stage on 7th avenue!!

Art Director Artem Vitalevich gave me a wonderful tour in St.Petersburg when I arrived this morning:)

Artem Vitalevich

Very enthusiastic nice, yet unknown, person and me:)

Garden and house-concert at Aksel´s place

2010-05-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

I did some stand up comedy on "Russians" and Fred Uno Huvenes on "Arabic litterature", Russian Gipsy songs by Solfrid Molland, I played some Shumann Gershin/Kolstad, Benjamin Britten´s solo suite for cello by Ingvild Nesdal Sandnes and a little encore by Farué... and THEN the party began... <3 Don´t miss out on our next house-concert :)
Check out our mediacenter for more photos http://www.cafedeconcert.no/mediacenter

Café de Concert at Caffe Vivaldi

2010-05-19T05:03:00.000-07:00

I performed at the legendary Caffe Vivaldi again yesterday night with a full house of crazy Norwegians and local customers.
Had a great time performing, super inspired by the wonderful musicians Jessie Montgommery (violin) and Amanda Gookin (cello).
Read more about it on www.cafedeconcert.no/blog

17th of May in New York

2010-05-18T04:10:00.000-07:00

I remember my first time in New York on May 15th 2007. Walking down Lexington Avenue and 53 Street with a heart raceing like lightening, towards what was to become where my creative Manhattan-soul would blossom like never before, The Norwegian Seaman´s Church. I still have that feeling, walking down Lexington and 53rd, every time. The community of wonderful people and insanely gifted artists inspire in ways no pen in my power can yet describe. Celebrateing Norway´s National Day with all of these great people both working and hanging out at the church makes me so incredibly Norwegian! And there is nothing more Norwegian than beeing Norwegian and playing Norwegian music abroad. Especially when performing one´s own contemporary music, like I did during the official 17th of May-concert at 7 pm, last night. This was definitly the best national celebration in my life!! And I got to lead the whole parade, in my new, pink Moods of Norway-suit:) Huge Café de Concert-concert at Caffe Vivaldi tomorrow, can´t wait!!

Midnight-concert in a dance-studio (Tasapisitasakaalu studio)

2010-05-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

I attended a photo exhibition two days ago, met some cool people from Tallin and told them I was touring Estonia. Unfortunately they weren´t able to attend any of my schedueled concerts in Tallin, Sagadi, Tartu or Pärnu. So - we came up with the idea of makeing a midnight-concert on the 13th somewhere in Tallin, so they would be able to attend the concert. I talked with a new and wonderful friend I just met a couple of hours earlier, the extraordinary and talented Helen Lõhmus (which actually was the one who envited me the exibithion in the first place) and within the day, she had found a perfect location for our spontanious-made concert, and by the end of the following day, there were 96 attending on the concerts facebook-event. Just after my performance in Pärnu on the 13th, my supercool manager for the Estonia-tour drove me 1,5 hours straight back to Tallin, I came to the dance-studio at two minutes to midnight - and then one of the coolest concerts I have ever played flew through the night with an amazeing crowd of at least 120 people! Can´t wait to come back to Tallin in July! Helen - you rock!

Pärnu - one of the cities I will return to this summer :)

2010-05-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

A full house with an audience who gave me so much energy made even the weather Gods respond to the music.
Sunshine, rain, thunder and lightening danced along my performance outside the windows of creativity on stage.
The solo concert soon became an interesting chambermusic concert for piano, sun, water and natural electricity...mindblowing,
I´ll never forget it! And what a magnificant Estinoa grand piano it had...!!!

Tour Manager in thinking-mode...

Tartu - the town in Estonia where time stands still

2010-05-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Something happenes when you drive in to Tartu, some magic clock says stop - and you float around between space and nowhere. Which is a great feeling! One I gladly took with me into the University Hall on May 12th, a most outstanding concert hall with fantastic acoustics and a marvellous Steinway D-model. This place used to be the hottest hall to perform in in these parts during the Soviet-time, I can understand why. But not why it isn´t marketed better these days. That remains for me a mistery. But what a great time I had performing in that hall...I completely forgot time and space....

Concert at the Norwegian Embassy´s galla dinner, Tallin

2010-05-11T01:33:00.001-07:00

The Norwegian Embassy envited me to do a concert performance under their galla dinner at the well known Olympia Hotel in Tallin. Great fun, lots of interesting people - GREAT FOOD!!!!

The wonderful Nano-house

2010-05-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

If you´re in Tallin you need to check out this supercool café/restaurant, run by Priit Kuusik and his world famous wife and model Beatrice, check out www.agencybeta.ee. I believe she is the coolest model, with insanely cool ideas, I have ever met!
Here you get home made gourmet food - and the best breakfast you have EVER had!

Aksel "off stage" in Tallin

2010-05-09T15:05:00.001-07:00

"Pikk" means something quite special in Norwegian...

"Segway" - the new way to go sightseeing!

Wonderful friends!!

Look what I found wondering in the streets of Tallin!!?? Kristin Dahle - head of Innovation Norway for the Americas.... :)

Raimond Raadik´s photos from Sagadi Mõis...

2010-05-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

The wonderful lady of the house gave me tulips after the concert <3>
This cat knew when there was a photographer nearby....

Annely Abel, my wonderful Estonian manager - and the the photoloving cat...

Aksel: Look, Annely - one day I will perform on the moon!

Annely: Keep dreaming, Aksel - dreams do actually come true....

Sagadi Manor

2010-05-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

The outastanding sporano and superior art-warrior Pille Lill

One and a half hour north of Tallin lies this manor which I think should be called for a castle! A true spa treatment for the eyes! Some good Estonien friends of mine showed up at the concert to my surprise, and also some great people from yesterday came for the second time. I feel so honored to perform for so many wonderful persons here in Estonia. Unfortunately the manor didn´t have a grand piano (yet), but with the help of a skillfull pianotuner from Tallin I did the best I could trying to make magic with the musical keys of the house. What great energy that manor gave me! And this manor will be encluded as the first collaborating manor to Café de Concert´s Nordic Chambermusic Center in Norway (Elingaard, Fredrikstad), this beeing concluded after a wonderful chat with the lady of the house after the concert. I will actually be returning to this wonderful place this July for inspiration and recreation. So should the rest of the world...

Today is my day off here in Tallin. The weather is a bit grey, but one must not forget that grey is also a nice color produced by the artistic rainbow! I´ll be doing a long work-out before hitting the sauna and jacuzzi, then strolling around this magical old town and meeting up with friends at the opera later to hear soprano Pille Lill sing Prokofiev! Looking very much forward to that!!

My first solo concert in Tallin

2010-05-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I performed in the wonderful Tallinna Mustpeade Majas. A concert hall which has held concerts for more then 500 years! The team around me here in Estonia, under the wonderful leadership of Annely Abel, is absolutely amazeing. The extraordinary soprano and artistic warrior Pille Lill is a great inspiration for me, and her daughter Leelo has so much experience of manageing concerts and art in general that this smells a wonderful cooperation with Café de Concert in the future! The hall was packed with people and the acoustics were superfantastic! I am staying at the luxurious Telegraf Hotel in the heart of the old town in Tallin. The first thing I heard over the sterio walking towards my royal-like hotelroom was the "Trout quintet" by Schubert...I thought to my self: I am at home! Today I had a lovely breakfast in the Tschaikovskij-room, where they have house concerts every month. People, this is the place to be! My program for the tour is the same I performed in Oslo on March 24th, which at the Carnegie Hall concert in October will be reffered to as "The Aksel Kolstad Show" - with my newest compositions for piano and stand up comedy. Next concert will be at Sagadi Moisas tonight at 6 pm in Sagadi Manor. Can´t wait:)

Kjell Bækkelund-award 2010

2010-05-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

Last night I was awarded with the prestigious Kjell Bækkelund-award for 2010.

It was a magnificant evening, arranged and hosted by Bækkelund´s wonderful Brita Rosenberg, which I will never forget. I performed one of my solo pieces for piano, the first movement of Beethoven´s Spring sonata for violin and piano (with Bjarne Magnus Jensen), 1st movement of Mozart´s piano concerto nr. 11 and finished off with Gershwin´s Rhapsody in Blue. The two last pieces with the supercool Fredrikstad Chamber Orchestra. Bækkelund would have been 80 years yesterday, and it was a true honor for me to recieve his prize on his birthday. Kjell Bækkelund, one of the finest artists we have ever had in Norway! The prize was 100.000 NOK (approx 16.000 USD) - more than enough to finance my solo debut in Carnegie Hall in New York on October 10th this year! Brita, you have inspired me more than you can imagine! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and can´t wait to see you in Carnegie Hall!!

Now it´s off to Estonia for a solo tour with my newest compositions for piano solo - plane leaving in a couple of hours, got to get moving:)

Et brev til Prinsesse Madeleine av Sverige...

2010-04-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

Kjære eventyrlige Madeleine!

I 2001 skrev jeg et eventyr om deg. Og senest i mars i år
så fortalte jeg eventyret til mitt publikum under en solo-konsert i Oslo.
Jeg er usikker på om du husker eventyret, så jeg tok det opp så du
kan få høre det her: www.akselkolstad.com/audio - spor 7.
I denne tøffe tiden du går igjennom så ville jeg bare få deg til å smile litt:)
Du vil alltid inspirere Korporal Kolstad, og jeg vil alltid være kjærlig tro mot deg gjennom kunsten!
Jeg er i New York og spiller et par konserter mellom 15 og 25 mai, om du har lyst til å treffes over en kaffe
hadde det vært eventyrlig!

Beste hilsen, din musiske Korporal Kolstad

A wonderful house-concert at my place

2010-04-24T07:30:00.001-07:00

The atmosphere was electric, the stories from the book "Momo", told by the wonderful drama-student Iselin Shumba, was dazzeling and the music simply flew out of our instruments. Bjarne Magnus Jensen and I started off with the funky Norwegian dance nr. 1 by Halvorsen. Then I played my Harlekin-variations (over Bach´s Goldberg Variations), then came Mozart´s 1st movement from his violinsonata KV 333, I played his famous solo sonata in B flat major (1st movement) and after Bjarne amazed the crowd with Ole Bull´s Mountain Visit we finished off with Svendsen´s Romance and Beethoven´s Spring sonata
(1st movement). Man, that was a blast! Can´t wait to invite everybody to the next house-concert at Casa del Musica;)
Great having you here, my dearest friends!!

House-concert at Aksel´s place!

2010-04-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Chamber music was originally made for small chambers. That´s why it´s important to actually hold chamber music concerts in small, private rooms from time to time, to not loose tradition. This time - is Friday, at my place. Everybody is welcome! I´ll be playing with my very good friend and the wonderful violinist Bjarne Magnus Jensen, who performed at my last house-concert along with the also well known violinist Catharina Chen. Bjarne and I will be playing Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in addition to some wine and an amazeing apple cake my mother tought me how to make. During my studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music I used to throw apple cake-parties almost every sunday, which could enclude poetry, chamber music - or massage, where everybody would give each other a good old massage to get the blood pumping. It´s time to get the apple cake concert-parties up and running again. Hm, maybe I should contact Apple.... C u there :) 7 pm at Bjerregaardsgt. 64 B, Oslo.

Musicians are athletes

2010-04-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

The life of a musician is actually much more exhausting than what I believe most people think in the first place. One aspect is of course all of the travelling and physical effect it has on the body, and no less when having to perform at the same time. But what I would like to emphasise is the amount of strength needed to play an entire concert, totally focused, and constantly having to flow over with enegry at the same time as produceing energy. In my mind it is really as hard as any other sport. Which brings me over to my very point - both musicians and others should see the sport in music, and the music in sports. In other words see the athletism in art, and the art in athletism. I am an athelete - that´s why I wear Nike!

Recording from wednesday´s concert

2010-03-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

Here you can listen to my entire program from wednesday´s concert:
www.akselkolstad.com/audio/music/logen

The recording was done by the magnificant tonemeister
Oscar André Lie Foss. Stay tuned for soon to come video-samples from the concert by the multimedia state of wonder Morgan Nicolaysen, who also took all of the photos from my previous blog.

"I love this game"

2010-03-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

I had an amazeing audience yesterday at the wonderful Gamle Logen in Oslo, Norway. We hit it off from the first moment - and I´d love to take them out on another date sometime very soon <3

Ready, set, play!

2010-03-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today I played through my solo-program in the wonderful concert hall at Gamle Logen, Oslo, where I will be performing on wednesday. I felt like on fire wearing the new Moods suit and Nike sneakers! And this concert hall is one of Norway´s oldest and finest! The famous Norwegian violinist Ole Bull once said it had one of the best acoustics he had ever heard. Jascha Heifetz and Vladimir Horowitz among other great legends, have also performed in this wonderful hall. So there lies an absolutely great atmosphere in the walls the audience can look forward to!

As I am on tour with "Kultur.Akershus" this month playing two or three concerts for school-children almost every morning, the days have been long and often very hard, but yet so very inspiering. Performing for children, and watching them respond to the music is priceless. And it is allways so very important to never let go of the child within one self! Especially when performing on stage. On wednesday I´ll be unleaching the child in my self, on stage - for you!

After the concert everybody´s invited for a drink at Engebret Café,
Oslo´s oldest restaurant, right next to the concert hall! We got our own space - and our own bar;) Hope to see you all there after the concert, too!

C u at Gamle Logen, wednesday 24th of March, at 7.30 pm :)

Resent prizes

2010-03-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

"Scholarship from Tom Wilhelmsen Foundation"

Last December I was given a scholarship worth 30.000 NOK from the Tom Wilhelmsen Foundaiton in Norway to contribute to my work and studies in New York. I was of course is very extremely greatful for the scholarship and am so much looking forward to bring back more projects from the US to Norway as a result of the scholarship.

"Price of honor"

During the concert I hosted on January 3rd 2010 in Fredrikstad, I was awarded 30.000 NOK "for Kolstad´s extraordinary work for classical music in Norway" by Østfold Energy. The price was handed over completely by surprise! It came from out of the blue and the crowed seemed to like that:)

"Price of Honor - Østfold Energy Inc.´s price of honor for fine arts is given to Aksel Kolstad because of his
extraordinary work for classical music in Norway. The intention of giving the price is to stimulate and inspire the price-winner to achieve new artistic goals."

New moods and nikey´s for wednesday!

2010-03-20T07:10:00.001-07:00

I just had to get a hold of this superfantastic new suit from Moods of Norway, and added a pair of supercool orange and white Nikey basketball shoes today. Putting on the basketball shoes brings back a lot of great memories from when my wonderful dad coached me many, many years ago. He was a wonderful coach, among so many other things! For those of you who didn´t know - he was actually the coach of Norway´s national team for many years. I want to bring the game back in to my life. Because I miss it a lot. So, I bring my game with me on stage...Game on! C u on court on wednesday;)

I love you dad!

A musical living statue.

2010-03-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Too cool for a tuxedo...

2010-03-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Concert in Cannes

2010-03-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I landed in Nice, which was very nice, after a rather boring transit in Frankfurt (not the coolest place to be in the world of airports). But once I came to Nice my heart started to blossom! Man!! What a wonderful city!

I flew in with my very good friend and wonderful collegue, Bjarne Magnus Jensen (violin). And today we performed at the MIPIM International Congress in Cannes. We did some Halvorsen, Bull and Mozart´s supercool sonata in A major! After the gig Bjarne and I took a walk in the amazeingly huge congress hall and took a look at what it had to offer among all the men and women in black suits...I found a russian stand with an air-ballon that I liked very much...As well as another russian stand which represented the great castle in St.Petersburg, Tsarskoj Selo, where I performed a couple of years ago. I got a hold of some new contacts regarding future concerts in Tsarskoj Selo, looking forward to that!! I might actually perform there this June with some russian orchestra, performing Mozart and Gershwin concertos. Will keep you posted on that one:)

Heading back to Norway tomorrow - but not before hitting the nightclubs in Nice! Lunch in Monaco tomorrow of course....;)

Welcome to my solo recital!

2010-03-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

I´d love you all to come and see my solo performance at
Gamle Logen in Oslo (Norway) on March 24th at 7.30 pm

I´ll be performing my newets works for piano
An evening with comedy and contemporary music!
This is the program:

La Follia
Variation on a theme by George Gershwin
Variation on a theme by Sergej Rachmaninov
5 surreal interpretations of 5 lyric pieces by Edvard Grieg
Harlekin-variations
5 Goldfish-preludes
Deux morceaux fantasque

Tickets: 200/150/100 NOK is sold in Gamle Logen (tlf: +47 22332266)
or can be ordered online at www.billettservice.no (tlf: +47 815 33 133)

Hope to see you there:)

Thank you Musikk-Huset A/S for your sponsorship!