Brynjar Kolbergsrud

Brynjar Kolbergsrud grew up with a mother who was (and still is) a piano teacher and choir conductor, and a lot of music at home. Playing an instrument himself seemed natural, and he received much encouragement along the way.

− Those who had the greatest influence on me are my mother, who is a thorough piano teacher, my incredibly inspiring school band conductor Heidi Hesselberg Løken, and not least, my long-standing trumpet teacher, former Co-Principal Trumpeter in the Oslo Philharmonic Arnulf Naur Nilsen, he says.

He was engaged as Co-Principal Trumpeter himself by the orchestra in 2014, and feels he got off to a great start with the tour to Helsinki and Japan in the spring of the same year:

− Both the concerts here in Oslo, in Helsinki and in Japan were fantastic. Since then I have had a lot of good experiences; the two concerts with Prokofiev´s Romeo and Juliet in October 2015 were a lot of fun. Getting rewarded for hard and thorough work in the form of successful concerts every week makes me happy.

− Even being provoked can be fun

Brynjar has an appreciation for many different composers and types of work.

− As a trumpet player it´s interesting to work with composers who use the trumpet in many different ways and offer us a wide range of expression. Mahler is such a composer, but there are many more, both from recent times and from earlier days.

He doesn´t want to offer any advice on how one should prepare oneself for a concert, but points out that a good concert experience can be so many things:

− Sometimes you are swept away, and that is fantastic. Other times it might just turn out to be a relaxing time with great music. That´s also good. Even being provoked can be fun − at least in hindsight. So, my advice is to be open to everything!

When he isn´t playing, Brynjar enjoys being in the mountains.