Café de Concert

Rehersal with dancers for contemporary furniture fair.

Submitted by aksel on Thu, 2009-05-14 21:39

Today, we headed for Roy Arias Studios and Theater and rehersal with dancers for a show on a Norwegian contemporary furniture fair. This is a colaboration between Innovation Norway and Café de Concert, and we're very exited to be a part of the show. The combination of modern dance, beautiful furniture and classical music is just perfect, and we think this is a great opportunity to present Café de Concert for a new audience in the US.

Catharina Chen, violin

Aksel Kolstad, piano

Dancers: Eric Brathwaite & Meghan MacAlpine

Dancer: Eric Brathwaite

Dancer: Meghan MacAlpine

Living like kings

Submitted by aksel on Thu, 2009-05-14 14:50

Yesterday we moved in to a spectacular NYC-JC apartment.
Catharina exclaimed "are you serious!?" about hundred times. That has to be a new record! We all love the place! These gorgeous and spacious apartments is just top notch and it has the best view of the Manhattan skyline ever! Even more exiting is that it's run by the two Norwegians, Jarl Haugedal and Atle Fossdal. Their business is literally taking off and they're just about to open up more luxury apartments. We invited Jarl and Atle and a couple of friends over for dinner to celebrate! It's just breathtaking, guys! You rock!
Be sure to check out their website NYC-JC.com!

Café de Concert Boot Camp, New York

Submitted by aksel on Thu, 2009-05-14 07:09

While Michelle was sleeping and snoring like a baby, and Nick was...probably doing the same thing...the rest of the gang, including Christina Wiig (Café de Concerts party-planner and publicity-activist in NY), went training with CdC Boot Camp instructor Odd Roar Jakobsen in Central Park at 9 AM.

We must not forget that Brahms used to be an athlete when he was young and that Grieg loved to hike in the mountains. They were all great sportsmen in music as well as in life. So must performers at Café de Concert be too. It´s time we changed the image of unhealthy and lazy musicians! As there is art in sports - there is also athletism in art!

See more pictures in our media center.

Norwegian surprise at Caffé Vivaldi

Submitted by aksel on Thu, 2009-05-14 02:01

All of a sudden, from out of the blue, several young musicians and students from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo (where Café de Concert started) popped up at the concert last night at Caffé Vivaldi. A venue with amlost every classical composer framed on the wall in the back of the café. What can you say - it´s one of those "only in New York-stories" that happened.

The grand piano was delightful to play on and the intimate atmosphere was extraordiary at this wonderful venue. We are lucky to be performing there again on Thursday at 7.30 PM!

See more pictures from the concert in our media center.

Full house at the Gershwin Hotel yesterday, and a new concert tonight at Caffe Vivaldi.

Submitted by aksel on Tue, 2009-05-12 20:01

With approx. 80 people in the audience, the concert lobby of the Gershwin Hotel was filled up to it´s maximum. Catharina and Aksel blasted off with the Brahms Scherzo who took the audience by storm.

This was actually the first concert either of the artists ever had played together, still it looked as if they were having so much fun and being totally relaxed together on stage. Michelle and Nicholas also made a fantastic impression on the audience. The relaxed environment combined with the outstanding performances and Aksel's hilarious jokes made the audience connect with the musicians in a very unique way.

The day before the concert, after the piano tuner had finished off and left the Gershwin Hotel, the grand piano got a undefined "click" on almost every key. The tuner wasn´t able to come back to cure the sick Baldwin grand piano before just one hour on the concert day - but thankfully, he succeded, just in time. But something tells us the Baldwin needs a total makeover today..

You can see more pictures from the concert on the media center.

Right now, we're heading off to Caffé Vivaldi where we're performing tonight. We took a detour to take som pictures on Times Square.

Getting ready for the concerts next week!

Submitted by aksel on Sat, 2009-05-09 18:24

As the days go by, we're getting in pretty good shape for the concerts next week. On wednesday, Aksel and Catharina met up with the talented clarinetist Nicholas Gallas for rehearsals at the Norwegian seamen's church. Thank's for letting us use your facilities, guys!

Nicholas Gallas is a young outstanding clarinettist who just finished his masters degree at Juilliard, NY.
He is performing as a soloist and a chamber musicians and is well know for his Stravinsky and Mozart interpretations.
He will be performing the Brahms sonata in f minor with us on the NY & Washington DC tour.

As the interest of the concept grows day by day, we're excited to have started planning concerts in october, november and december in the US.

We're very excited to play here again and are looking forward to see you all on Monday at the Gershwin Hotel!

Want to get in touch?
We're now all on US phone numbers.
Aksel: +1 (347) 822-0740
Catharina: +1 (267) 808-5588
Morgan: +1 (646) 255-6716

Here's some images from the rehersals.

A new day in wonderful midtown Manhattan.

Submitted by aksel on Wed, 2009-05-06 14:37

Aksel is as always strolling around the city, enthusiastically inviting people to the concerts and spreading the word about CdC. That's what we call direct marketing!

This time in the US, our team consists of Aksel Kolstad, (MD, pianist), Catharina Chen (violin), Nicholas Gallas (clarinet), Michelle Alexandra (actress) and Morgan Nicolaysen (multimedia, web, blogging, taking musicians out shopping)

As we're exploring the US, our Norwegian producer, Marcia Titley is taking great care of business in Norway. Marcia is the latest member of the administration and brings valuable knowledge to CdC.

In Norway today, musicians from Fredrikstad Chamber Orchestra will be performing at Verdensspeilet Café in Fredrikstad at 7 PM (19:00) and Amelie Lied Haga, violin and Christian Hundsnes Grøvlen, piano are playing at Café Frölich in Oslo at 8 PM (20:00) If you're either in Oslo or Fredrikstad, be sure not to miss out on these great musicians.

Innovation Norway in the US

Since december 2008, we have been so lucky to be supported by Innovation Norway.
Because of I.N., we're able to travel around the world with support from all of their offices abroad. We are very proud to be profiled on their Visit Norway page and extremely thankful for everything they do for us! Looking forward to see you at our concert on Monday, guys!

We're also doing our best to take care of our musicians while touring.
A part of that is taking them out shopping for shoes..

We're performing in New York and Washington DC. Don't miss it!

Submitted by aksel on Mon, 2009-05-04 20:33

We have just arrived in New York City and are ready for at least ten concerts in NYC and two concerts in Washington DC.

The first concert will be held at The Gershwin Hotel (7 E, 27 street) on Monday, May 11th at 7:30 PM. We're also proud to at the same time present this month's profiled artist, Catharina Chen.

Catharina is a very talented violinist acknowledged for her charismatic playing both in Norway and abroad. Born in Oslo, Norway in 1985, Catharina began studying violin at the age of 5 with her father. Since the age of eight she has soloed with all major orchestras in Norway, including the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Tromso Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Camerata, and ZKO-Zuricher Chamber Orchestre. Well known to Norwegians through television and radio broadcast programs, Catharina is the recipient of numerous awards, and the youngest musician in Norway ever to be awarded the highly respected and prestigious Oslo City Culture Prize.

In addition to Catharina, Aksel Kolstad (piano), Nicholas Gallas (clarinet) and Michelle Alexandra (actress) will perform on both The Gershwin Hotel (May 11th) and Caffe Vivaldi (May 12th at 8:45 PM and on Thursday, May 14th at 7:30)

On May 17th, Aksel and Catharina will perform twice on Norway's national day at the Norwegian seamen's church i NYC. We're proud to take part of this great tradition.

For updated concert schedule, please visit our website.
You can also sign up for concert alerts there.
All concerts in the US are free.

We're busy rehersing as well as going to meetings with our associates and partners in the US.
We also got time for a little photoshoot to kick off our US tour!
Pictures from the concerts will be published in our media center.

Michelle Alexandra is a young and upcoming Norwegian-American actress with an already well established name in both theatre, film and musical productions.

PS! Don't miss the concert at Café Frölich in Oslo May 6th at 8 PM with
Amelie Lied Haga, violin and Christian Hundsnes, piano.