Creative Incubator in Tallinn, Estonia

Aksel had a succesful presentation of Café de Concert on the opening day of the Creative Incubator in Tallinn, Estonia. He was invited to Tallinn after the head of the Incubator in Tallinn, Anu Lõhmus, saw him do a Café de Concert-presentation in Berlin earlier this year. After the presentation Aksel played together wih the amazing violinist Kristina Kriit in the famous café in the old town in Tallinn called von Krahl Baar with lots of people and lots of fun!

We're open!

Today we had the first concert of many at our new café in Oslo!
As usual, the café was filled with an enthusiastic audience eager to hear what we had planned for this special evening. On tonights menu stood a mix of chamber orchestra, violin, piano trio, a small theatrical performance and of course plenty of hilarous stories between the peaces.
During the rehersals, we got a visit from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation who made a news story about us, airing the same night at the evening news. You can see it here at 08:44

We're also proud to announce that there will be held at least one classical concert a day from this day on. Remember to keep up to date on our concert calendar.

Why is Harlekin crying - a post festival story

The circus is closed. Everybody went home. The streets are empty, and Harlekin has nowhere to go, his home has closed for the night. He strolls up the narrow streets, looking through window glasses. The rooms are all dark, everybody is a sleep. In the very end of the street lies a little café nobody goes to. Only Harlekin knows of it. He opens the café-door. A small candle is lit on one of the tables, next to a painting of Mona Lisa.

Harlekin smiles with tears in his eyes when he sees it. Mona Lisa knows Harlekin well. She likes when he comes to visit late at night. Next to Mona Lisa is an old piano. Harlekin sits down next to the piano and looks at the music lying on it. It´s the Goldberg-variations by Bach. Harlekin starts to cry. So does Mona Lisa. Halrekin starts to play. Then he looks at Mona Lisa and plays Bach the way she likes it.

Listen to Aksel Kolstad: Harlekins variations
(Live from the Fredrikstad Café de Concert-festival 2009)

Fredrikstad Café de Concert Festival 2009

Fredrikstad CdC festival 2009 is over for now and we're now preparing for the opening of the café in Oslo. During the 12 concerts spanning from solo piano to chamber orchestra and saxophone, the audience got to enjoy live classical music in numerous cafés in Fredrikstad. Thanks to all the cafés for generously opening the doors for us to perform in a unique atmosphere!

This year, we had extra focus on children and teenagers as they usually don't get exposed to classical music. On friday Aksel and Andrijana, the new producer for Norway, visited Greåker VGS to play for the students. The result was that many of the students showed up on the concerts the following days.

As you can see, our audience span from children to senior citizens.
We want to thank you for your participation in our festival!

And a huge thanks goes out to our sponsors, especially the staff at Radisson Blu for taking such good care of us.


Feel free to visit the media center gallery for more pictures.

Fredrikstad Café de Concert Festival

The traditional Fredrikstad CdC festival is being held at several concert venues throughout Fredrikstad these days. Since the opening concert on thursday, both young talents and established musicians have given café concerts in both traditional and untraditional venues. In high schools, intimate stages and cafés, we're trying to inspire and entertain our audience with a repertoire ranging from light classical music to contemporary music.

We're now half way through the festival, but a lot of great concerts are scheduled over the coming days. Worth mentioning is several concert with Fredrikstad Chamber Orchestra and a concert at Norways probably smallest venue - det konglelige norske humormuseum..

We hope to see you at the coming concerts and be sure to check out our festival site.

Feel free to check out the gallery in our media center.