Tom Willy Rustad

Tom W. Rustad (1966) is a traditional folk musician and lives in Sør-Fron in Gudbrandsdalen. He learned to play traditional music from his grandfather (William) and his father (Willy) and plays Jaws Harp, Guitar, Cister, Diatonic Accordion, Contrabass, and Flute. He has received several first prize medals at the “Landskappleiken” (Norwegian Championship in traditional music & dance) for all the instruments he plays. He has also won several international prizes for his diatonic accordion playing. In 1999 and 2006 Rustad and the other members of the band Kvarts, won the Norwegian Grammy Spellemannsprisen. In 2015 Rustad performed Hørmanns jewsharp concert together with Oslo baroque orchestra, but he has also had solo performances together with the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra and Kristiansand Symphonic Orchestra.

He has a bachelor's degree in guitar and a master's degree in diatonic accordion. Tom W. Rustad has a long pedagogical experience as a teacher at different universities as The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, The Academy of Music in Viljandi, The Academy of Traditional Art and Music in Rauland, Norwegian State Academy of Music, and The Ole Bull Academy. He has written two books about how to play the diatonic accordion. In 1993 Rustad composed a suite for diatonic accordion and orchestra, and in the following years, he has composed and arranged traditional music for different orchestras and choirs.