Making waves at the Røros organ festival

Sept 21th, Røros Church

For the opening concert of Røros Organ Festival, Aksel performed as a soloist both with cantor Stephen Hicks and Røros Oratorio Choir. Even in advance of the event, there were high expectations in the local media. For example, in this preview of the organ festival, Rørosnytt mentioned "the song sensation Aksel Johannes Skramstad Rykkvin". In the video, interview, one of the organisers told the interviewer that hearing the combination of organ and this boy soprano "makes your hair stand on end".

In another preview, titled "Highlights lined up", the local newspaper Arbeidets Rett wrote:

"In the concert with choir and organ, the organisers have secured the boy soprano Aksel Johannes Skramstad Rykkvin. He is just 12 years old, but in addition to severel concerts in both Oslo Cathedral and Nidaros Catehdral, he was invited for a solo program to King's College Chapel, Cambridge."

During the concert, Aksel first sang the solo Benedictus part of the "Kleine orgelmesse" by Joseph Haydn. After that, Aksel (as the soprano soloist) and Røros Oratorio Choir continued with a moving rendition of Felix Mendelssohns "Hear my prayer". Lastly, Aksel and cantor Stephen HIcks pleased the audience with a splendid performance of W.A. Mozart's "Alleluia" (from "Exsultate, jubilate"), which was so well received that they did it twice. Please enjoy Aksel's da capo performance in the YouTube video below:

The video has been viewed more than a thousand times during the first two weeks. It was also featured on the choral music site Saturday Chorale:

"I'm following this wonderful Norwegian treble's career with great interest – he has a purity of tone and sureness of vocal control that makes his singing a pleasure to listen to and testifies not only to the presence of talent but to a lot of very hard work to develop it. Enjoy :-)."

PS: By the way, this Facebook posting on the pages of the organisation TalentNorge has a nice quote about Aksel from no other than the CEO of Bergen Philharmonic, Bernt E. Bauge:

"A sensationally good boy soprano"