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"Book a musical calendar for all of December? What better way for your employees to start the morning, with little old me performing? The innovative, customer&employee focused Bridge Techologies is getting 24 customized musical snippets (including product placement for clients) starting Dec 1st. What custom made theme would you wish for? Hope you reach out so we can create magic during the month of Christmas." So after recording excerpts from 24 of Bach's preludes and fuges as film music for Batman comics at home (at my BatCave Studio) more fun recordings for Bridge Tech at Rainbow Studio is going on constantly. What a previlege. December 3rd is the release date of my 7 Superhero Concert Etudes for young pianists! To each etude there is a superhero comic story drawn, colored and written by Emil Hauge. (This is the perfect Christmas gift!) On the same day as you can buy this combined music and comic book from Musikk-Huset you can also hear me play the pieces on YouTube with the comic stories blended in the video. Save the date in front of your laptops! The superhero etudes for piano are the first of its kind, a sort of a "modern pictures at an exhibition” (Modest Mussorgsky). Enjoy this fantastic universe and interpret your favourite stories the way you wish at the same time as you use the pieces to become a better pianist, or as we call it - a musical super hero! This musical comic book fits any school back pack and it will definitly make playing the piano become a cool thing amongst children!

On October 10th last month it was 10 years since my debut in Carnegie Hall. October 10th 2010. I remember the standing ovation. Sensational feeling. And then everybody sat down for the encore. Everybody but one. My father kept standing.In between concerts we use our hands where they are needed. Still. To all my collegues, get out there and give some of your spare time to farming and animals. Yesterday was such a great day!Also - tune in on my instagram profile (akselkolstad) for my Bach Batman Christmas Calendar! Every day until December 24th!

Three months at the farm gave muscles and lots of new ideas! Inspiration and a new force! Watch out, here comes the post covid 19 aera!

Photo: Kenneth Enstad

Been a wild ride since December. Here are a few highlights! Café de Concert Oslo, Denmark, Red Cross Oslo, Christmas Concert, Sweden, Documentary on Swedish TV, Oslo, Spain, Ålesund, Fredrikstad. New publication on Musikk-Huset coming out this semester whish will blow you and your kids away, can´t wait to show it! Been a week in the mountains now in Valdres, full of snow and ideas on my head! See you on March 26th at the Café de Concert get togehter at Aker Brygge? Stay tuned on social media! 

Standing ovation in Lublin, Poland, three days ago during the Wieniawski Festival 2019, where also Vadim Brodski performed (!!!).  (Last photo from the Lublin Philharmonic Concert Hall) In August I performed a couple of outdoor concerts in collaboration with Jeunesses Musicales (...what, you didn´t know I was Superman and could fly?) before I enjoyed playing in wonderful Copenhagen, which I will do again mid December. When I came back from Copenhagen in August I took into he woods like Robin Hood. Both projects on the pier and the farm made pretty cool stories on tv (TV2) !

Here is a short clip from the concert in Lublin this week, watch (out) from 6 min where I am fooling around with, and improvising over, Chopin while the brilliant Agnieszka Schulz manages to still keep it cool, haha! Click here for the video. Several concerts beeing planned solo and as a soloist with orchestra in Poland and Ukraine stay tuned.  A couple of chambermusic concerts coming up next week in Oslo (Bogstad Gård) in addition to a lot of fun at Café de Concert. Let´s plan a playful concert or event together? My place or your place! Hit me - I´m open! (concerts, MC, inspirational lectures, stand up comedy)

A little P.S. for the local vikings: Klare for julebordsesongen? Jeg kan i den annledning flagge det uimotståelige kinderegget / den trefoldige julegrisen Kolstad: Konferansier Musikalske innslag Humor Jeg kommer ferdig oppvarmet, klar til å bli servert :)