Two recruitment award winners
During the jazz festival's anniversary concert, both last year's and this year's recruitment awards were handed out. The recruitment prizes are NOK 25.000 and went to two young musicians from the Kongsberg region; Andreas Hesselberg Hatzikiriakidis and Reidun Ottersen.
- The purpose of the award is to stimulate young musicians who have shown promising and ambitious beats as jazz musicians or within jazz-related music, began jury leader Tor Dalaker Lund in front of a packed hall in Kongsberg Musikkteater.
Andreas Hesselberg Hatzikiriakidis
Photo: Justyna Bjerknes
Andreas was born in 1997 and started playing trumpet and piano at an early age. His interest in jazz came towards the end of high school, when he started to take an interest in jazz trumpeters such as Miles Davis and Chet Baker. After high school, Andreas started at Sund Folkehøgskole in Inderøy in Trøndelag - which is known to have had a number of the country's best jazz musicians as students. This was a very inspiring environment, and here he also became increasingly interested in experimental music.
Andreas has just completed his studies at the Grieg Academy in Bergen. There he had the drummer Terje Isungset as his teacher. - Andreas has always sought alternative expressions, and in the last year he has had a fantastic development. It is innovative and qualitatively good at the same time, says Isungset.
Free jazz and improvised music are close to Andreas' heart, and he is inspired by musicians such as Magnus Broo, Peter Evans, Mats Gustafsson, Pharoah Sanders and David S. Ware. Andreas has also released a record with the band Toivo Quintet.
- This was a perfect fit for me, who has just finished my education, said an obvious Andreas, who will continue his "adult life" as a freelance musician both in Norway and around the world, and in Kongsberg of course.
Reidun Ottersen
Photo: Inger Marie McQuown
Reidun is a euphonium player, trombonist, instructor, composer, lyricist and vocalist. She grew up in a home where she was surrounded by music. Started playing on his father's baritone horn very little, and eventually the road to Guttemusikken was short. When Kongsberg Storband needed a bass trombonist, Reidun signed up immediately. She studied music at Kongsberg upper secondary school with the euphonium as her main instrument. Here she also sang, and it is probably as a vocalist that many people in Kongsberg have met her.
After high school, it was to the well-known Toneheim Folkehøgskole, before studies at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, where she continues to study.
Reidun is versatile. In addition to the fact that she has studied both classical and rhythmic singing, she is now throwing herself into studying rhythmic trombone, she also directs and writes a lot of her own music. At Kongsberg, she has appeared on the program of the jazz club, Jazz Evidence, on several occasions.
- Rough! was Reidun's first response to the award, before she continued - Absolutely sick to end up in the same row as those who have received this award in the past. The recruitment price is high and she indicated that the money should be put to good use, including for the EP she is recording.
About the recruitment price
The festival's hope and desire is, of course, that the award will encourage the award winners to continue investing in music – in music education and a career as musicians. It is therefore very satisfying for the festival to be able to state that many of the previous award winners such as e.g. Christian Meaas Svendsen, Tom Hasslan, Axel Skalstad have fulfilled expectations and become central and highly recognized musicians not only in the Norwegian, but also in the international jazz environment. Two slightly younger musicians and former award winners who are now really making their mark are Håvard Aufles and Øystein Skjelstad Østensen. Kongsberg Jazzfestival collaborates with GKN Aerospace, which contributes financially to the award.
We congratulate both award winners, who we hope to hear and see a lot about in the future!
Cover photo: Justyna Bjerknes