Alexander Rybak won the Norwegian Song Contest

Alexander Rybak won the Norwegian Song Contest, and will meet Europe for The Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow this spring.

Alexander Rybak was born at Minsk in Belarus in spring 1986. He started to play piano and violin at the age of 5, but chose to concentrate his attention to the fiddle. He used to practice with his father Igor Rybak until he reached puberty. Then he commenced with prof. Isaac Schuldman at Norges Musikkhøgskole. At this time he also started playing with the Vivaldi-orchestra (lead by his father), and also with the Barrat-Due junior orchestra. He still plays with both orchestras.

From 2000 till 2003 Alexander was pupil of the creative violinist/conductor/pedagog Alf Richard Kraggerud. After this he started as a pupil of Eileen Siegel (3. concerto maestro with the Oslo Philharmony Orchestra) and Lena Rist-Larsen (violin pedagog AND Norwegian champion at accordeon). In addition Alexander has had lessons and master classes with amongst other Eduard Gratch, Piotr Janowski, Detlef Hahn, Ole Bøhn, Roland Vamos, Henning Kraggerud, Ilya Konovalov, Mauricio Fuks, Geir-Inge Lotsberg and Harald Aadland.

In the summer of 2002 Alexander received a scholarship in the shape of a free course at New Jersey. There he was a pupil with Stephen Shipps, og was in addition chosen to get a master class with Pinchas Zukerman.

Alexander has participated at a number of Norwegian courses and festivals like Valdres Summer Symphony and the international Hemsedal Festivalen for dancers/musicians (Alex was one of the musicians). He was concertmaster during Halsnoey's Symphony Project in the summer of 2004. Alexander has been a solist with very many good orchestras like Minsk chamber orchestra and the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra (Kringkastingsorkesteret). He has toured Chicago, Spain, Russia, Poland, and Farsund (a town in Norway).

He has won at Norway's Music Championship and the Kocian competition in Tchekkia. The Autumn of 2004 he won NOK 100,000.00 at Anders Jahre's culture prize for young artists.
In 2006 he performed as the fiddler in the piece "Fiddler on the Roof" at a theatre in Oslo. At the end he came with a poem in Russian that he had written by himself. He speaks fluent Russian, and also has an uncle who lives in Moscow.

Alexander has played and sung with well-known artists like Stephen Ackles and Morten Harket. He is also a composer and won tonight the Norwegian pre-contest of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Alexander and his parents, Natalia(piano) og Igor(violin), is known as the trio the Rybak-family.

Listen and see his song "Fairy tales"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTdndLFY3W0