I read a lot of poetry and compile the poems that I like and can pull from later. My compositional process is intuitive more than anything else, and much more emotional than cerebral, I think. I might even start with the ending and build around that, never really writing down any music until it’s pretty final. That way it helps me find out if it’s something that really touches me or if it’s just in my head. When an idea lights a spark, I start to build on it, sort of chiseling – I don’t often compose chronologically, it’s usually more like a puzzle. I try to step out of myself as much as possible and experience an idea from the outside, as if I’m in the audience. Then I’ll often make the ideas into tracks and put them on my iPhone and go listen to them somewhere else, like in a park. Usually, I first record a lot of ideas on my computer, into Logic. Piano is my instrument, so my composition process starts with improvising on the piano or a keyboard. I think he’s the greatest improviser of all time and his tone is incredible. In the past ten years or so, a lot of my music has been influenced by film score, and some of the greatest composers today are writing music for film, such as Dario Marianelli, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, and Howard Shore.
As a pianist, Keith Jarrett is definitely my greatest influence. I’m especially inspired by the improvisational artists, such as film composer Thomas Newman, jazz musicians Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry. The combination of choir and orchestra or string orchestra is one of my absolute favorite sound worlds. It’s also a great starting point as a composer because it teaches good voice leading and other foundational aspects of composition. My first composition teacher, Wolfgang Plagge, is an excellent choral composer, and choral music is such a natural and organic place to begin as a composer because you’re writing for the human voice. When I was growing up, my parents were always listening to a variety of music in the house, including choral music, so it’s always been a part of my life. I never had a moment in which I decided to become a composer though it was something I had been so passionate about from a young age, and I never thought of doing anything else. I didn’t read music until later on because I just wanted to do keep improvising and creating things. As a child, I had a pretty good ear and was fairly quickly able to hear which notes worked together and which ones didn’t. I started playing piano and improvising when I was about five years old. His wind band works are published by Boosey & Hawkes.įor more information, please visit or find Ola on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. His choral and piano works are published by Walton Music and include titles such as the Sunrise Mass, Northern Lights, Ubi Caritas, Tundra, and Ave Generosa. Ola’s recordings include the Decca Classics albums Ola Gjeilo (2016) and Winter Songs (2017), featuring Tenebrae, Voces8, and the Choir of Royal Holloway. Composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo was born in Norway in 1978 and moved to the United States in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City, where he currently resides.