Klaus Ellerhusen Holm

COMPOSER/SAXOPHONE / CLARINET /

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klaus.e.holm@gmail.com

Klaus Ellerhusen Holm was born in Oslo on July 30, 1979. Currently living in Trondheim and working in the field of contemporary and improvised music as well as the outer regions of jazz. Enjoying and feeling at home in a number of different settings within this environment. 

He started playing the cornet at age six, but soon after changed to the saxophone. He has a bachelor degree from the jazz department at the Trondheim music conservatory and has studied composition at the Norwegian academy of music. He is currently taking a masters degree in composition also at the same institution graduating spring 2026.

In recent years, he has shifted from primarily being a performer to focusing more and more on composing for other ensembles and musicians. This has resulted in several works for several of the leading Norweigian contemporary music ensembles, such as Tøyen Fil and Klafferi, Ensemble neoN, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, ensemble Aksiom and SiTron. The interchange between performer and composer is important to his practice and feels natural and mutually enriching. He also utilizes improvisation and his background as a performer as a tool and method in my compositional work.

As a composer he strives to create music that is personal and original while also reflecting on aspects of who we are and relating to the society and world we live in. Both as a performer and a composer, he is drawn to the unpolished, unpretentious, and unusual. One of his goals is to infuse some of the energy of free jazz into the frameworks and forms of other genres. His flexibility across different "genres" within a field characterizes his activity as a composer as well as a performer.

A part of his practice also involves cross modal experiences, investigate how the sense of taste and knowledge from the field of gastronomy can be used as a source of inspiration for creating new music. This practice explores how gastronomy—understood both as a sensory experience and as a cultural phenomenon—can expand the composer’s toolbox and create new connections between audiences and musical works.

He has performed music in 20 countries, and recent performances include Only Connect - Trondheim, Borealis - Bergen, Molde Jazzfestival and Music Unlimited Wels.

As a perfomer he has collaborated with, or played in ad hoc settings with among others: Arild Andresen, Mats Äleklint, Johan Berthling, Ab Baars, Xavier Charles, Clare Cooper, Jim Denley, Axel Dörner, Michael Duch, John Edwards, Sidsel Endresen, Sture Ericson, Ig Henneman, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Frode Gjerstad, Ivar Grydeland, Anders Hana, Dave Holland, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Terje Isungset, Håkon Kornstad, Ola Kvernberg, Ole Henrik Moe, Kim Myhr, Kjell Nordeson, John Russell, Kari Rønnekleiv, Ignaz Schick, Raymond Strid, Mattias Ståhl, Christian Wallumrød, Stian Westerhus, Joe Williamson, Ingar Zach and Per Zanussi.