Edvard Grieg Society of Minnesota

04/12/2026

Håkon Kornstad, the Norwegian saxophonist known as "Tenor Who Plays Tenor" closes our 2025-26 season this Tuesday, April 14 with a solo jazz concert at Mindekirken - The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church at 7:00 pm.

His presentation creatively blends jazz and operatic strains, accompanying himself through the technique of "looping" where he lays down layers of sound, building an accompaniment to his jazz improvisations and operatic vocalizations.

The result is hauntingly effective as sampled in this video clip.

Mr. Kornstad will also be the featured speaker earlier in the day at Mindekirken's Tuesday Open House. https://www.mindekirken.org/event-details/the-tenor-who-plays-tenor-presenter-hakon-kornstad

General admission seating. Pay as you will admission accepted at the door or online at https://egsmn.org/concert/norwegian-jazz-artist-hakon-kornstad $20 suggested donation.

https://youtu.be/QVlE-GrDoyg?si=HHmtpxYuF_tXyh8m

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03/27/2026

Preview of Håkon Kornstad April 14 concert: "Ideale" from NRK TV Broadcast

03/26/2026

What to expect from the April 14 Håkon Kornstad concert?

Something fresh, new, original and virtuosic.

In a recent interview, Håkon Kornstad explained that he doesn’t remember the last concert he has performed. For him, everything is in front of him. There is one exception: The first piece he’ll play in a solo concert is named, paradoxically for a Norwegian, "Sweden," and features his lyrical and soulful tenor saxophone as well as his command of extended techniques such as harmonics and slap-tonguing.

From there he reveals, bit by bit, the rest of his artistic assets – using an outdated electronic device to record and playback audio loops to accompany his improvisations, creating an oriental, microtonal sound by putting a clarinet mouthpiece on a flute (the “flutonette”), whistling as if a new instrumental category had been born, and singing as he was trained at the Oslo Academy of Opera. The exact compositions are less important than the successive revelations of what one man can create.

You will hear the arbitrary walls between jazz and opera crumble. Who among lovers of beautiful music can defend them? While few have tried, Kornstad has endeavored to make music that unites their treasures.

“My solo performances,” he says, “combine solo saxophone improvisation with extended techniques such as multiphonics and slap tongue, approached not as effects but as melodic and expressive tools. The music unfolds with an elegiac, romantic, and often melancholic character. Sound layers are gently built using an intentionally outdated looping device, used solely to support and vary the improvisation rather than to foreground technology. On top of these textures, the voice enters as a kind of remembered sound – fragments drawn from the golden age of classical singing.

“Rather than full operatic arias, which can be too dramatic for this environment, I work with stretched citations and lyrical excerpts from composers such as Tosti, Respighi, Gluck, and Purcell. The Nordic song tradition is equally central, with music by Grieg and Sibelius, alongside Nordic hymns and sacred songs.”

03/18/2026

Here's a wonderful article about Håkon Kornstad, the performer who will conclude our season of EGSMN Concerts at Mindekirken - The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church on April 14.

He will give a presentation about his unique performance and career for Mindekirken's Tuesday Open House at noon and perform his solo concert at Mindekirken at 7:00 pm.

Norwegian musician Håkon Kornstad blends jazz and opera, singing tenor while playing saxophone. He debuts in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Davis, merging classical arias, Nordic songs, and improvisation into a unique, avant-garde performance style.

02/26/2026

More photos from the Feb. 24 celebration of the 150th anniversary of the premiere of Peer Gynt. Sold out performance at MetroNOME Brewery.

02/21/2026

Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt premiered 150 years ago in Oslo on Feb. 24, 1876, accompanied by Grieg’s amazing incidental music. Meet the cast of our Readers Theater production of Peer Gynt at MetroNOME Brewery, adapted and crafted by Sonja Thompson.

Clockwise: Sonja Thompson, piano, baritone Justin Spenner (Peer Gynt), tenor Thore Dosdall, baritone David Filman, soprano Kathryn Rupp (Solveig), mezzo soprano Robin Helgen, and soprano Maggie Burr.

The 7:00 Tuesday, Feb. 22 performance at MetroNOME Brewery is sold out, but there is a slight chance of turnback tickets and there will be a video stream from the Fingal’s Cave performance space to overflow audience in the upstairs bar area.

02/21/2026

Sonja Thompson, Maggie Burr, Justin Spenner, and Kathryn Rupp enthralling the Feb. 17 Mindekirken Tuesday Open House audience with their preview of their upcoming Feb 24 Reader’s Theater adaptation of Peer Gynt at MetroNOME Brewery.