Steinar Aadnekvam

Steinar Aadnekvam (born 4 April 1984), is a Norwegian jazz guitarist.
Biography.
Aadnekvam was born in Bergen. He got his first guitar at the age of 4, and grew up in different towns and cities in Norway, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden. By the age of 9 he was composing music and listening to artists like Elvis Presley, Prince and Michael Jackson. As teenager his interest turned to Jazz when discovering artists like Charlie Parker, John McLaughlin, Miles Davis, Rhasaan Roland Kirk, Abdullah Ibrahim and later composers like Egberto Gismonti, Hermeto Pascoal and Indian classical music among others.
After musical studies at Södra Latins gymnasium, followed by studies at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden, with notable teachers at this time including Mikke Rönnkvist, Thomas Wixtröm, Andreas Oberg, Alvaro Is Rojas and Sten Hostfalt. Aadnekvam turned his curiosity outwards as he decided to travel to Mumbai, India for studies with classical Indian master flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia at his intern school Vrindaban Gurukul. Soon after fate would also have him make his first travel to north-eastern Brasil, an acquaintance that made an even deeper impact on him and for over a decade he found his second home in the state of Pernambuco where two of his albums have been recorded collaborating regional musicians like bassist Walter Areia, percussionist Carlos Amarelo and flutist, saxophonist Ivan Do Espirito Santos among others.
In 2009 Aadnekvam was nominated for the 'Young Nordic Guitarist Award' by the Uppsala International Guitar Festival, and in 2010 finalist at the 'Norsk JazzIntro' at Moldejazz he started his own record label 'MMYH Records' (Music Makes You Happy) with his debut album "Simple Things" (2010). In the following years he played feature concerts at clubs and major jazz festivals in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Poland and Romania and later turned to working on his two Brazilian album collaborations "Abacaxeiro" and 'Ecology' and extensive concert touring, masterclasses, tv appearances and radio broadcasts related to these in the Nordics and in Brasil.
In 2015 Aadnekvam signed for the Norwegian label Losen Records for his fourth studio album "Freedoms Tree" (2015), featuring an international ensemble including various guest performers and recorded at the classic Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, Sweden. The whole album was then performed in concert at the 2016 Stavanger International Jazz Festival, MaiJazz featuring the 7 piece original ensemble.
The collaboration with Losen Records continued with the release of the album "Freedoms Trio" (2016), which in turn became the name of his working band and world jazz collaboration featuring bassist Rubem Farias from São Paulo, Brasil and drummer, singer Deodato Siquir from Maputo, Mozambique. Their sophomore album "Freedoms Trio II" (Losen Records) was released in 2018. Between 2016 and 2019 'Freedoms Trio' performed over 120 concerts across Europe at main jazzclubs and festivals in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Kosovo, Azerbaijan and were notably selected to perform at the Jazzahead Festival Overseas Night in Bremen, Germany in 2018 and at the NAMM Show 2019 Official Artist Selection in Anaheim, California - USA.
In May-June 2019 Steinar Aadnekvam traveled to Maputo, Mozambique for a series of concerts and workshops in collaboration with Deodato Siquir and local artists.