Ola Gjeilo was recorded at All Hallows’ Church in Hampstead, London, in April 2015. Gjeilo is presently composer-in-residence for Voces8. The Choir of King’s College Cambridge performed Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium) at the 2015 BBC-televised Carols from King’s. Hi music has been recorded by the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, The Choir of Royal Holloway, the Flemish Radio Choir and Voces8.
Gjeilo studied composition at The Juilliard School, and the Royal College of Music, London. Two instrumental items for piano and string quartet, The Crossing, an expansive cameo from Gjeilo’s multi-movement Dreamweaver and the delicately arpeggiated Reflections, vary the sequence of choral items.
Charles Anthony Silvestri’s poem Tundra recalls the Hardangervidda mountain plateau in Gjeilo’s native Norway, with minimalist chords in the instrumental accompaniment anchoring a soaring vocal line. Gjeilo creates a distinctly rustic sound for the words of W B Yeats’ The Lake Isle with Kristian Kvaalvag’s twanging acoustic guitar joined by swelling voices and a plaintive violin. They, along with The Sphere, which is the first movement ( Kyrie) from the Sunrise Mass, are infused with a sense of mysticism and reverence. Unusually, Gjeilo plays his own improvised different-every-time accompaniment over Voces8 singing Ubi Caritas, which, along with Sanctus: London is written in the style of plainchant Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium) and The Ground, based on the last movement of his Sunrise Mass are in the manner of a chorale. The sacred songs use Latin religious texts and reference several music styles. As he explains in the liner notes, Gjeilo says he likes the combination of choir and string quartet as “the timbres reinforce each other and can sometimes create a texture that feels bigger and lusher than the sum of its parts.” On this recording, he is joined by an interesting and eclectic group of collaborators – the two notable British vocal ensembles Voces8 and Tenebrae, who share the choral items between them, the Chamber Orchestra of London and cellist Matthew Sharp. Gjeilo’s style that is new, contemporary and rich in melody and harmony. This self-titled album contains 11 tracks which draw on the not dissimilar inspirations of sacred music, space and nature. His music hit a high in Sydney in 2014 with performances by Vox ( Dark Night of the Soul), the Choir of St James King Street ( Sunrise Mass) and the Sydney Chamber Choir ( The Spheres). Now based in Manhattan, Gjeilo is increasingly popular in the US and the UK. He is especially inspired by the improvisational art of film composer Thomas Newman, jazz legends Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry.Norwegian-born composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo has released a new CD on the Decca Classics label (478 8689), Ola Gjeilo, featuring music for voices, piano and strings. Gjeilo grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps his adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most, evolving a style that is often described as cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound.
An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world.
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