Alexander Rybak

Alexander Rybak, is a Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist and actor. He was born in Minsk, Belarus, in those days part of the Soviet Union. He played the violin and piano since he was five years old, but after a while he chose to concentrate on the violin. 

 

Alexander practiced violin with his father Igor Rybak until he was a teenager, when Alexander began studying at the Barratt Due Music Institute. During that time he played in the Vivaldi Orchestra, which was led by his father, and the Barrat Dues Junior Orchestra. From 2000 to 2003, Alexander was a student of violinist, conductor and educator Alf Richard Kraggerud, followed by study with Eileen Siegel, 3rd Concertmaster in the Oslo Philharmonic, and with Lena Rist-Larsen, violin educator and Norwegian master of accordion. He has also had lessons and masterclasses with many  other great names.

 

In the summer of 2002, Alexander received a scholarship in the form of a free course in New Jersey, where he studied under Stephen Shipps, and where he was selected to conduct a masterclass with Pinchas Zukerman. Alexander Rybak had participated in several Norwegian courses and festivals, such as “Valdres Sommersymfoni” and the international Hemsedal Festival for dancers and musicians, where Rybak participated as one of the musicians. He was a concertmaster during Halsnøy’s symphony project in the summer of 2004, and soloist with several good orchestras such as the Minsk Chamber Orchestra and the Kringkastingsorkesteret. He has toured in Chicago, Spain, Russia and Poland. In the same year he won Anders Jahre’s cultural award. In the fall of 2005, Rybak performed the violin concerto “Musica Avventurosa” by young composer Daniel Thornhill, together with the orchestra Ung Symphoni.

 

Alexander Rybak participated in the tv-show Idol. In 2006, he won the talent contest Kjempesjansen. In 2007, Rybak debuted as an actor when he was the fiddler in Fiddler on the roof. In 2008, Alexander was featured on the children’s album “Magiske kroker & hemmeligheter”. In November 2008, Elisabeth Andreassen invited Rybak on a tour in 2009, with songs from “Bettans” record Spellemann, with music from both Norway and Sweden with inspiration from folk tones. In 2009,  Alexander Rybak won Melodi Grand Prix 2009 with the song “Fairytale”. He was able to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest and won the contest. “Fairytale” became a huge hit all over Europe. Shortly after the contest Rybak released the album “Fairytales”. Rybak was awarded the Musician of the Year award under the Spellemann Prisen 2009.

In 2010, another album, “No boundaries” was released. Also a Russian version, “Nebesa Evrope”, was released. A year later, he hosted the tv show Allsang På Grensen and released an album entirely in Swedish: “Visa vid vindens änger”. In may 2012 he sang a duet and had a small tour with Paula Seling. 

 

In 2013 Rybak composed a song for Melodi Grand Prix called “I’m With You” sung by Annsofi Pettersen. In 2015, he composed “Still Here” for Franklin Calleja in the Maltese National Finals. He also composed a song for the Belarusian group Milki entitled “Accent”, which got 4th place in the national final. In the same year he released an album called “Trolle og den magiske fela” and a year later it was followed by “I came to love you”.

 

In 2018, Rybak took part in Melodi Grand Prix again with the song “That’s how you write a song”. For the second time, Rybak was able to represent his country in the Eurovision Song Contest. Rybak won the semifinal, but ended up just in 15th place in the final.

In 2019, Rybak’s children’s musical “Trolle og den magiske fela” premiered. The show sold over 10,000 tickets and had to schedule extra performances to curb the demand.