Chamber Music Festival
Welcome letter – Kon Tiki Chamber Music Festival 2023
Welcome to the twelfth annual Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival 2023!
We are so happy to present Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival in a new light after covid restrictions made it difficult to arrange festivals for the past few years. This year our home will be in beautiful Villa Grande, better known as Center for studies of the Holocaust and Religious minorities (H-L center) on the Bygdøy peninsula.
Last year our festival took place at the Kon-Tiki Museum. This year we have a different and exciting collaboration with the Kon-Tiki Museum – a family and children’s concert where kids all the way down to four years old will be able to enjoy stories and music lead by Norwegian star actress Sølje Bergman. This concert offers free admission. There is nothing like starting young, and a concert specifically catered to children will give them a chance to gain access to some of the world’s finest music accompanied by storytelling and acting.
This year we are happy to announce four new musicians. Violist Lars Anders Tomter is a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music as well as being one of Norway’s most beloved solo violists with a career spanning over three decades. We are also very happy to welcome Danish/Swedish cellist Andreas Brantelid for his debut at the Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival. He is one of the most sought-after young cellists in the world today and we are thrilled to welcome him to Kon-Tiki and Norway this summer. He plays a Stradivarius cello, loaned graciously by the Anders Sveaas Foundation, and will pair perfectly with another Stradivarius instrument at Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival, namely the ‘Da Vinci’ Stradivarius violin loaned to David Coucheron also by the generous Anders Sveaas Foundation.
American double bassist Glenn Gordon made his debut with the Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival in 2019 and delighted our audiences with his dynamic chamber musicianship and virtuosic solo playing. We are excited to welcome him back to Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival this year.
Finally, we are delighted to present the young and extremely talented Norwegian violinist Bjørg Pas. Her latest achievements include being a finalist in the prestigious competition “Virtuos” broadcasted on national television.
We are so excited to present all these wonderful artists to Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival 2023 and we look forward to welcoming you to this musical journey with us!
Best wishes,
Julie Coucheron and David Coucheron
Co-Artistic directors




