Klaus Ellerhusen Holm
COMPOSER/SAXOPHONE / CLARINET /
Photo by Janne Amalie Svit
Klaus Ellerhusen Holm (b. Oslo, 30.07.1979) is a composer and musician living in Trondheim. He works in the fields of contemporary and improvised music, as well as the outer regions of jazz, and feels at home in a variety of settings within this environment.
He holds a bachelor's degree in jazz performance from NTNU's Department of Music in Trondheim, as well as a master's degree in composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.
After primarily working as a performer within improvised music, jazz, and contemporary music for over 20 years, he has in recent years shifted his focus toward composing for other ensembles and musicians. This has resulted in several works for leading Norwegian contemporary music ensembles, such as Tøyen Fil og 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 his compositional work.
As a composer, he strives to create music that is personal and original while also reflecting aspects of who we are in relation 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 the energy of free jazz into the frameworks and forms of other genres. His flexibility across different genres within the field characterizes his activity as both a composer and a performer.
A part of his practice also involves cross-modal experiences, investigating how 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 a cultural phenomenon, can expand the composer's toolbox and create new connections between audiences and musical works.
His music has been performed in over 20 countries. Recent performances include Only Connect (Trondheim), Borealis (Bergen) and Moldejazz.
As a performer, he has collaborated or played in ad hoc settings with artists including Arild Andersen, 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, Tor Haugerud, Terrie Hessels, Dave Holland, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Terje Isungset, Håkon Kornstad, Ola Kvernberg, Paal Nilssen-Love, Ole Henrik Moe, Kim Myhr, Kjell Nordeson, John Russell, Kari Rønnekleiv, David Stackenäs, Ignaz Schick, Raymond Strid, Mattias Ståhl, Christian Wallumrød, Stian Westerhus, Joe Williamson, Ingar Zach, and Per Zanussi.