Reciever of the Norwegian state art fund 2012-2015, Runar Kjeldsberg is currently working on a project to record the solo guitar works of François de Fossa. The first of three Fossa albums is already published. Other publications are: «Masterpieces» from 2010 with solo works by Fossa, J.S. Bach and J. Manén, and «Duetto Concertante» from 2011 with music for flute and guitar by Giuliani, Carulli and Legnani.
Kjeldsberg recieved his master diploma in 2009 from the prestigous guitar class of Carlo Marchione in Maastrich, the Netherlands. He also studied under the guidance of Alexis Muzurakis (duo melis), Strasbourg, Gerard Abiton in Orléans and Jan Erik Pettersen in Kristiansand, Norway. During his studies Kjeldsberg was active on several guitar festivals, taking top prizes in: Giovanni Talenti in Italy(2007), Montenegro Guitar Festival (2008) and Veria Guitar festival, Greece (2009). He also recieved Masterclasses from the greatest masters of the guitar such as Leo Brouwer, Zoran Dukic, Pablo Marquez and many others. In recent years Kjeldsberg has had the honour of teaching masterclasses himself in places as «Wellington School of music» in New Zealand, «Orange county School of the arts» in USA-CA, the «University of Agder» and the «Norwegian Academy of music» both in Norway.
Kjeldsberg has performed several hundred concerts in Europe, Australia and U.S.A.
Press qoutes:
”An impressive debut.”
-Paul Fowles, Classical guitar magazine
”If you like good guitarmusic, you will love this”
”The respect and passions Kjeldsberg obiously feels for these composers, and their music shines through this recording”.
-Erik Munsterhjelm, Tønsberg blad.
”All we could do was to admire this guitarists eminent technique in all those finger-breaking runs.
-Kai Stoveland, Lindesnes avis
Project - François de Fossa funded by the Norwegian State Artfund
Francois de Fossa (1775-1849) was a French composer, guitarist and soldier. Unknown to most of us today, though in his time he was called «the Haydn of the guitar». Norwegian classical guitarist Runar Kjeldsberg was introduced to de Fossas music during his master studies in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The guitar professor in Maastricht, Carlo Marchione has unparallelled understanding of the music from the classical era. Runars joy of the discovery of Fossas music has led to a major project, funded by the Norwegian state art fund, to record the complete solo pieces known today by de Fossa. The first of three albums are to be released soon and contains de Fossas four fantasias. Two of those, world premiere recordings.
The recordings are made on an original Rene Lacôte guitar from 1820, owned by Prof Erik Stenstadvold. When touring, Runar Kjeldsberg will perform on a copy of this guitar made by Norwegian luthier, Simen Omang.
