Blog

Teaser-concert at Mall of America, Minneapolis

Thu, 2010-12-02 23:47

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 Åse and Knut!! :D Life is good in Minneapolis!

Standing ovation in New Orleans

Mon, 2010-11-29 05:29


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

Sat, 2010-11-27 19:50


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

Thu, 2010-11-18 10:24

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

Mon, 2010-11-08 18:11

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

Mon, 2010-11-08 17:41
by Moa Alexandra Engelbrektsson











Sponsorship with BMW in Oslo

Sat, 2010-10-30 11:33


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

Tue, 2010-10-19 02:47


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

Tue, 2010-10-19 02:29


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!

Tue, 2010-10-12 01:38

(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#

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