Ole Edvard Antonsen

Ole Edvard Antonsen might have ended up a pianist rather than the renowned trumpeter that he became had it not been for the presence of a common childhood fear. He took up the piano when he was three years old.

Two years later his family, who lived outside Oslo in Norway, decided to remove the instrument from its location on the main floor of their house and set it up in their basement. Like many children his age, Antonsen was terrified of the dark and he refused to venture into the shadowy depths of the basement, not even for the opportunity to play the piano.

Instead he rummaged through his father's things in search of another instrument and stumbled upon a trumpet. The boy picked up the new instrument then and there and within a week made decent progress. Before he turned seven, Antonsen played a solo for an audience that numbered 2,500. Unfortunately, he failed to wear a belt that evening. While he was on stage, the waistband of his too-large pants slid to his knees.

The trumpeter played that first memorable public solo with a dance band led by Odd Antonsen, his father, who had given him his first musical instruction. In addition to conducting a dance band, the elder Antonsen

was a saxophonist and clarinetist who built a fine local reputation in the family's hometown of Hamar. With the strong musical influence in the family, Antonsen's father did not have to pressure him to spend endless hours in pursuit of perfection. If anything, the young musician found such pleasure in playing and practicing that, more often than not, his father had to shoo him outside to play with the neighborhood children.