Ketil Bjørnstad (born 25 April 1952) is a pianist, composer and author.

Biography 2025:

Ketil Bjørnstad was born in Oslo. He trained as a classical pianist and studied with Amalie Christie and Robert Riefling, and also studies in London and Paris, with Ilona Kabos, a.o. He won the title of Ungdommens Pianomester (Youth Piano Master) in 1966 and 1968. When he was 16, he made his Oslo Philharmonic debut as a concert pianist, with Béla Bartók’s third piano concerto and Øivin Fjeldstad as the conductor. Two years later he gave his first classical solo-recital in Oslo’s Universitetets Aula, with music by Debussy, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Chopin and Grieg. Both concerts are recorded. He also played Mozart, Beethoven and Bach-concertos with different orchestras (KORK, Stavanger Symfoniorkester a.o.) and conductors like Karsten Andersen, Sverre Bruland, Øivind Bergh and Jiří Starek. In the first film about the new Henie Onstad Modern Art Center at Høvikodden outside Oslo in 1968, directed by Pål Bang-Hansen, he played a solo piano fugue by the composer Finn Mortensen.

Bjørnstad subsequently turned towards jazz and rock, influenced by what was happening on the contemporary music scene, from Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way to different rock groups, and the new generation of young rock and jazz musicians, without forgetting his lifelong love for classical music. The experimental artistic milieu at the Henie Onstad Center at Høvikodden was also highly inspiring. He began to play with the avant-garde Svein Finnerud trio, but also performed Beethoven’s third piano concerto with the local Bærum Symfoniorkester at the same time. In this period, the legendary bass-player Bjørnar Andresen became a close friend who encouraged him to write his own music.

Also inspired by the very creative milieu at Club 7 in Oslo, where even Miles Davis gave a concert, and also many other international jazz and rock stars, he began to compose. During the important years with the Philips label and the prominent Norwegian producer Svein Erik Børja, he collaborated with musicians like Knut Riisnæs, Jon Eberson, Pete Knutsen, Bjørn Alterhaug, Sigmund Groven, Arild Andersen, Terje Venaas, Sveinung Hovensjø, Jon Christensen and Pål Thowsen. He also started a lifetime collaboration with the Norwegian singer and songwriter Ole Paus. Many of Paus’ literary friends also became Bjørnstad’s friends. Authors like Jens Bjørneboe, Harald Sverdrup, Finn Strømsted, Finn Alnæs, Knut Ødegaard, Triztan Vindtorn, Rolf Jacobsen, Halldis Moren Vesaas and Gunnar Bull Gundersen had great influence on him when he began to write poetry, and later also novels. In 1984 he wrote both text and music to the musical Ildlandet for DNS in Bergen, directed by Bentein Baardson, and with Sissel Ingri Andersen, Kim Haugen, Sverre Rossummoen and Nils Vogt in the leading roles. Later he also wrote the music to Bentein Baardson’s staging of Hamlet for Rogaland teater, followed by the play Forestillinger for Haugesund teater and Britt Lossius. Later he wrote and composed the rock-opera Rift, and worked for Birgit Amalie Nilssen, both on the musical Amanda fra Haugesund and Kvinnekuppet. In 1995, when Stein Ørnhøi asked for a new play for Teater Ibsen in Skien, Edith Roger and Bartold Halle staged his play Spill, about the friendship between the violinist Ole Bull and the fiddler “Myllarguten”, with Nils Sletta and Jan Ø. Wiig in the main roles.

In 1993, he came in close contact with Manfred Eicher from ECM, who produced his first ECM-album Water Stories, and also proposed that he should create the The Sea-quartet, with guitarist Terje Rypdal, drummer Jon Christensen and the American cellist David Darling. The quartet toured all over the world, and also released two albums, The Sea I and II. Eicher also produced two duo-recordings with Bjørnstad and David Darling. Bjørnstad made several recordings with Per Vollestad, Bjørn Kjellemyr, Per Kolstad,, Knut Reiersrud, Frode Alnæs, Nipe Nyrén, Audun Erlien, Reidar Skår, Alfred Janson, Annbjørg Lien, Eivind Aarset, Jonny Sjo, Kim Ofstad, Rune Gustavsson, Ola Brunkert, Hector Bingert, Johan Norberg, Conny Söderlund, Stefan Brolund, Mads Bergström, Kjetil Bjerkestrand, Svein Dag Hauge, Marius Müller, Sigurd Køhn, Rolf Graf, Geir Langslet, Rune Arnesen, Nils Petter Molvær, Palle Mikkelborg, Helen Davies, Jai Shankar, Aage Kvalbein, Per Lindvall, Folke Bengtsson, Alex Riel, Wolfgang Puschnig, Rolf Kristensen, Ole Kelly Kvamme, Tom Rudi Torjussen, Marin Stallemo Bakke, Per Hillestad, Paolo Vinacchia and Audun Kleive, Oslo Kammerkor, Sjøbodkoret, Nidarosdomens Oratoriekor, Nordstrand Musikkselskaps kor, Kor.Z, Koralis and Det norske Solistkor a.o., and collaborated with conductors like Grete Pedersen, Anne Haugland Balsnes, Håkon Daniel Nystedt, Egil Fossum, Olav Næss, Petra Bjørkhaug and Rolf Meyer Tallaksen. In the beginning of the eighties, he worked with Vilhelm Magnus Seyffarth on Aniara, and later also Old. He wrote 30-årskrigen for Frode Rønli and Stavangerensemblet. They also had a reunion in Stavanger in 2021, one year before Frode Rønli died. The original group, with Anders Bru, Øystein Elgøy and Knut Køningsberg was replaced by Alf Terje Hana, Reidar Larsen, Jørun Bøgeberg, Rune Arnesen and Dominique Brackeva.

Bjørnstad has recorded more than 80 albums, for labels like Philips, Polydor, Universal, Slagerfabrikken, Tylden, Kirkelig Kulturverksted (Erik Hillestad), ECM, Universal/Emarcy, BMG, Grappa and Simax (Helge Westbye). In Norway he is particularly famous for the triple-album Leve Patagonia (1978), which features Cornelius Vreeswijk, Lill Lindfors, Olle Adolphson, Jahn Teigen, Ole Paus, Alf Cranner, Tore Onsaker, Ånen Valand, Hege Tunaal, Lars Klevstrand, Harald Heide Steen jr. a.o. His most famous song is Sommernatt ved fjorden, sung by Ellen Westberg Andersen, and later by Sissel Kyrkjebø, a.o. Bjørnstad has also released and produced albums with a huge range of artists, including LAVA, Sissel Ingri Andersen, Tommy Nilsson, Göran Fristorp, Lynni Treekrem, Ida Lind, Anne Grete Preus, Carsten Loly, Jonas Fjeld, Lage Fosheim, Jørn Hoel, Anneli Drecker, Eldbjørg Raknes, Kjetil Saunes, Petronella Barker, Henrik Mestad, Bentein Baardson, Ann Cathrin Tessnes, Kristin Asbjørnsen, Kari Bremnes, Randi Stene, Lars Anders Tomter, Frøydis Armand, Stavangerensemblet, Anders Wyller, Per Vollestad, Tora Augestad, Eva Bjerga Haugen, Tore Brunborg, Håkon Kornstad, Erik Bye and Ole Paus. He is internationally known for his Universal/Emarcy and ECM recordings, later also for his Grappa and Simax-recordings, including The Sea, duo recordings with David Darling and Terje Rypdal, Grace, with Anneli Drecker, Bendik Hofseth, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang, Arild Andersen and Trilok Gurtu, Floating with bassist Palle Danielsson and percussionist Marilyn Mazur, which, as with Grace, went to the top of the jazz charts in Germany, solo triple album Rainbow Sessions and The Light, with Randi Stene and Lars Anders Tomter. Gramophone magazine has compared Bjørnstad's songs to those of Leonard Cohen. His ECM-album, Remembrance (2010), adds to his catalogue of his serene, meditative work. All recorded and/or mixed by Jan Erik Kongshaug in Rainbow Studio, Oslo.

Bjørnstad has in recent years worked with the Swedish cellist Svante Henryson and Anneli Drecker, a.o. In 2000 he wrote the official millennium oratorio Himmelrand (The Edge Of The Sky), based on poems by Stein Mehren and performed with Kari Bremnes, Lynni Treekrem and The Norwegian Solost’s Choir in The Oslo Cathedral, and also outdoor at Frognerseteren, with the presence of King Harald and Queen Sonja. He wrote prologues for the Molde International Jazz Festival in 2007 and for the Bjørnson Festival in 2008. He also wrote Izzat for The Norwegian Opera, Seafarer’s Song for Artic Art Festival (Festspillene I Nord-Norge), Coast Lines for the Canal Street Festival in Arendal in 2007, Hvalenes Sang (Song of the Whales) for Vestfold International Festival in 2009 and La Notte – The Antonioni Project for Molde International Jazz Festival in 2010. In 2012/13 he launched Soloppgang/Sunrise, a cantata with texts by Edvard Munch. He was also touring as a duo with Kari Bremnes and the Løsrivelse-project, due to the Munch 150 Anniversary in 2013.

His music has often been used by film directors, including Erik Poppe, Ken Loach and Jean-Luc Godard. As a pianist he has toured all over the world, and visited jazz, classic and literature-festivals including those in Montreal, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, South-Korea, USA (Spoleto), Rome, Nancy, Frankfurt, Cartagena, Hay on Wye, Frankfurt Book Fair, Norsk Litteraturfestival Lillehammer, Leipzig, London Jazz Festival, Molde (both the jazz-festival and the Bjørnson-festival), Ålesund, Kristiansund, Sunndalsøra, Mo I Rana, Sandnessjøen, Peter Dass-dagene, Mosjøen, Odda, Rosendal, Haugesund, Ålesund, Trondheim, Steinkjær, Levanger, Kråkeslottet Senja, Bodø, Sortland, Tromsø, Arendal, Kristiansand, Balejazz, Festspillene i Bergen, Risør, Trondheim, Stavanger and Ålesund Chamber Music Festivals, Nattjazz, Voss, Maijazz, Stavanger, Anjazz, Dølajazz, Valdres Sommersymfoni, Røros, Harstad, Narvik, Lofoten, Göteborg, Ystad, Umeå, Midtfynsfestivalen (Ringe, Denmark), Oslo Jazz Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Vestfold Festspillene, Skåtøy-festivalen, Skien, Porsgrunn, Kongsberg, Svalbard, Rotterdam, Budapest, Warszawa, Wien, Beograd, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Lanzarote, Rome, Garda, Gouveia, Porto, Corc, Lerwick (Shetland), Reykjavik, Ingolstadt, Neuwied, Hamburg, Brehmen, Schloss Elmau, a.o.

Bjørnstad first appeared as an author in 1972 with the poetry collection Alone. He has published more than 50 books, including poems, novels and biography. Among his earliest novels are Pavane and Bingo – A Virtue Of Necessity. His novel Oda!, which is based on the life of Oda Krohg, is regarded as a reference work on the bohemian scene in Kristiania, and sits alongside his biography of Hans Jæger. A translation of his biographical work The Story Of Edvard Munch was published in English to coincide with a Munch retrospective exhibition in London, and got much international praise. Among his other literary works are the critically acclaimed Villa Europa and the Victor-Alveberg trilogy, which consists of the novels Drift, Dream of the Sea and The Road to Dhaka. Bjørnstad won the Riksmålsprisen in 1998 with Nåde (Grace). The same year he wrote a satirical book about football, The Journey To Gaul, with Ole Paus. He also wrote The millennium trilogy which comprises Fall, Ludvig Hassel's Tusenårsskiftet (Ludwig Hassel's Millennium) and Tesman.

Earlier Bjørnstad wrote the psychological thrillers Det personlige motiv (The Peronal Motive) and Skumringsmulighetene (Twilight possibilities). The events of the latter take place in the archipelago of Tvedestrand Municipality, where Bjørnstad lived in the 1970s and 80s. More recently, Bjørnstad wrote an award-winning trilogy about the young pianist Aksel Vinding. It consists of the novels Til Musikken (To Music), Elven (The River) and Damen i Dalen (The Lady in the Valley). ECM also released Vinding’s Music, a double album connected to the music in the novels.

Bjørnstad's literary breakthrough in Germany came in 2006 with Vindings Spiel (To Music) published by Suhrkamp/Insel. The influential critic Elke Heidenreich described the novel as "a perfect book" in her Lesen! program for ZDF, and it went straight into the bestseller list of Der Spiegel. The book was also Bjørnstad's literary breakthrough in France, and was awarded the Prix des lecteurs for 2008. To Music was published in English in 2009. In 2010, the novel was longlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and also translated to more than twenty languages.

The three novels The Immortals/De Udødelige, End of the World/Verdens Ende and Loneliness/Ensomheten, are comparable to Bjørnstad’s Millennium-trilogy, where the author discusses the modern man’s possibilities in a contemporary setting. In Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the critic Klaus Birnstiel wrote that The Immortals was "a great novel, not easy to forget".

Master of dreams/Drømmemesteren is a biography about the Norwegian painter Bendik Riis, who lived much of his life on different mental institutions. The Road to Mozart/Veien til Mozart is both a Mozart-biography and a story about the authors childhood in Oslo in the Sixties and Seventies. The book received unison praise, and was also released by Suhrkamp/Insel in Germany

On ECM, Bjørnstad has also released the albums Life in Leipzig, Remembrance, Night Song, Vindings Music and La Notte. Both Soloppgang/Sunrise and A Passion for John Donne are written for choir and soloists.

Sanger om tilhørighet (Songs Of Belonging), where Bjørnstad continues his collaboration with the Norwegian singer and saxophone player Håkon Kornstad and also Tora Augestad, Anja Lechner, Birger Mistereggen and Nidarosdomens Oratoriekor, conducted by Petra Bjørkhaug, was launched in Nidarosdomen during Olavsfestdagene 2014, and was also recorded for NRK and Grappa. A few months later that year, Bjørnstad played for more than 50.000 people outdoor at the Jarasum International Jazz Festival in Korea, together with Terje Rypdal. A festival he also visited with solo piano in 2011.

In 2015, Bjørnstad recorded a new album with Ole Paus, Frolandia. He also launched a new novel, called The Sixties/Sekstitallet, the first of six novels about the decades from the sixties to today. The Seventies/Syttitallet and then, annually: The Eighties/Åttitallet, The Nineties/Nittitallet, 2000/Tyvetallet and, released in August 2020: The Last Decade/Siste Tiåret. The series has so far sold in total more than 200,000 copies (Aschehoug Forlag). The first four books have also been translated into German by Osburg Verlag. In ZDF Matthias Heineman writes that Bjørnstad is "a solid storyteller". In Jyllandsposten Lars-Ole Knippel chose The Nineties/Nittitallet as one of the best book of the year (2018). Verdens Gang writes about The Seventies/Syttitallet (2016): This is truly an adventurous journey (Guri Hjeltnes), and in Dagbladet Marius Wulfsberg writes that the project is a “A literary triumph”.

All together, Bjørnstad has so far sold more than one million books and also close to one million albums worldwide.

In 2021, Bjørnstad launched the book Downhill – an obsession, in collaboration with the World Cup top skier Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, who was seriously hurt in Val Di Fassa earlier that year, but made a stunning comeback and won the Kvitfjell Downhill in 2023. She also received bronze-medal in the last two alpine world championships. Downhill is a book about similarities and differences between music/literature, ages and sports. He also began to write poetry again, and launched Båt på fjorden (Boat on the fjord) in 2021, Sommernatt ved fjorden (Summernight on the fjord – love poems) in 2022, and Beundringen (Admiration), poems about some of his heroes in sports during the years, in 2023. In 2024, he released the novel Norefjell, which was praised by the critics, and he will release the new novel Elvestad in August 2025

In recent years, as a musician, Bjørnstad has released a number of solo piano albums, Shimmering and Images from 2015, but also The World I Used To Know (Grappa 2019), recorded in Abbey Road's famous Studio 2 in London. The album was launched at the same time as two sold-out concerts in The Norwegian Opera, which marked Bjørnstad's fiftieth anniversary as a musician. The first concert was also filmed and shown on NRK. Bjørnstad's latest ECM-release is A Suite of Poems with Anneli Drecker and Lars Saabye Christensen. The same year, Grappa released Hun som kjenner tristheten ved ting (She Who Knows The Sadness Of Things) with Eva Bjerga Haugen, based on lyrics by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold.

In April 2020, Grappa also launched The Personal Gallery with violinist Guro Kleven Hagen. Three months later, Lawo launched Lofotoratoriet with Marianne Beate Kielland, and in March 2021, Simax released a dress rehearsal-recording and DVD of his new opera Flagstad-The Opera, a live performance from The Norwegian Opera in Oslo, November 2020, with Birgitte Christensen, a.o.

Also in 2020, during the outbreak of the corona-virus, he made a live solo-concert without intermission in the empty Sentralen in Oslo which was released both on cd and DVD by Grappa, due to his 70th Anniversary in 2022. Kjell Kalleklev Management also arranged a big solo-tour all around Norway that year, starting at Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo. Grappa later released the album Between Hotels And Time, with Anneli Drecker and more poems by Ketil Bjørnstad’s close friend Lars Saabye Christensen. Christer Falck in C & C Records also released a 17 cd-box set (The Seventies) with the complete albums between 1970 and 1980, and also bonus-albums.

Sanger ved havets begynnelse (Songs At The Edge Of The Ocean) was performed and recorded by Simax in Haugesund 27th of April 2022, with the singer Solveig Andsnes, the fiddler and violinist Nils Økland and the percussionist Rune Arnesen. The text is based on a Norwegian translation of Paul Valéry’s poem Le Cimetière Marin, made by Pelle Christensen. Bjørnstad’s long time friend and sound engineer Sven Persson recorded the concert. And it was mixed by Mike Hartung in Propeller Studio, which also has been Bjørnstad’s recording studio the last four years, with solo albums like Nightwalker and Evening Song.

In 2024, the recording of the large and seven nights sold out Terje Vigen-production by Birgit Amalie Nilssen, Bjørn Ole Rasch and Kilden in Fjæreheia 2017, close to the church where Henrik Ibsen’s famous hero was buried, was released on Grappa. And Jag etter vind (Catching The Wind), was performed and recorded in a sold out Oslo Cathedral in February. The cantata is written for a big choir and ensemble, and build on Catharina Jacobsen’s revised version of the texts from Ecclesiastes in the Bible. A double cd with both the piano sketches and the live recording was mixed by Propeller and released by Simax later that year, with Brynjar Onsøien (baryton), Tore Brox (conductor) a big choir (Prosjektkoret Jag Etter Vind), and Helge Andreas Norbakken, Ellen Brekken, Nils Økland, Hanne Rekdal, Stefan Ibsen Zlatanos and the composer at the piano.

During Alpine World Cup at Kvitfjell in March 2024, he also paid musical tribute to the Olympic Downhill and Super G-arena in 1994, together with Kjetil Bjerkestrand and Dag Kolsrud.

In September 2024, Bjørnstad played and wrote a prologue for the cellist Sandra Lied Haga’s new Chamber Music Festival in Kristiansand.

Spring 2025: Ketil Bjørnstad continues with writing, solo concerts, collaboration with other musicians, and also preparing for recording a new duo-album in December, planned for Spring 2026 on Simax.