Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen founded Hedvig Mollestad Trio in 2009, and the still consisting members are Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen – guitar, Ellen Brekken – bass, Ivar Loe Bjørnstad – drums. The group was founded by Thomassen after she was awarded the prize «the young jazz talent of the year» at Molde Int. Jazz Festival the same year. The following year they toured Norway, recorded their material, and got a record deal on the highly acclaimed record label Rune Grammofon. The trio have since then released Shoot! (2011), All Of Them Witches (2013) (for which they were nominated for Norwegian Grammy in the Rock Category), Enfant Terrible (2014), Black Stabat Mater (2016) and the live album Evil in Oslo (2016). All releases got stunning reviews in national and international press, to mention a few: The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Mojo, Uncut!, Classic Rock and All About Jazz. Hedvig Mollestad Trio have played hundreds of concerts, including jazz clubs all over Norway, all the big jazz festivals in Norway (Kongsbergjazz, Moldejazz, Trondheim Jazzfest, Maijazz, Nattjazz, Sildajazz), but also large music festivals like Øyafestival, Varangerfestivalen, Tons of Rock, Utkantfestival and PstereoFestival. They have toured extendedly in Europe twice (Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, France, Italy) and also Japan and Malaysia. They played at SXSW in 2014 and had new songs premiered in Wall Street Journal and on Guitar Player, and also a great review of both their gig and record by senior editor in Rolling Stone David Fricke. In 2013 Hedvig Mollestad started touring for Concerts Norway. Concerts Norway is Norway’s largest communicator of live music, and owned by the Ministry of Culture. Their primary target groups are children and young people, and each year they organize some 9000 school concerts in Norway. They have played several concerts in Canada (Vancouver and Ottawa Jazz Festival), in addition to Berlin Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Tampere Jazz happening, Pori Jazz Festival, and this year they are teaming up with the highly acclaimed and long time saxophone rrrrriot boy Mats Gustafsson, known for his extended work as a musicien beyond borders, with no bounderies or limitations. Twitter: @HedvigMollestad | Instagram: @HedvigMollestadTrio