So, here are Ola’s own words recounting his experience witnessing the northern lights and how this inspiring event moved him to write the piece of the same name: I thought, wow, how serendipitous that the Phoenix Chorale has released our newest recording (featuring Ola’s music and titled Northern Lights) at the same time these amazing images are coming from Norway. He also talked about the piece he’d written of the same name, “Northern Lights.” I know this because I was having lunch with Ola Gjeilo recently and he mentioned the northern lights were happening. His choral music has also been performed by other elite choirs such as Kansas City Chorale, Phoenix Bach Choir, World Youth Choir, VocalEssence, Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, and the Swedish Radiokören.The northern lights are happening right now in Norway and are reported to be the most intense display of this fantastic phenomenon the country has seen in decades. Olaf Manitou Singers, and Voces Nordicae. He has been commissioned by several ensembles and musicians worldwide, including American soprano Barbara Bonney (New England Songs, 2005), Ensemble Mendelssohn, Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, Philip Brunelle, Musikk-Huset Publishing House, St. Ola’s music has been featured on PBS in America, on the Swedish and Danish Broadcast Corporations and on all the major Norwegian TV channels as well as several radio stations. Gjeilo has written music for several short films and for television, now channeled through his media music company, Nordic Screen Music, which he co-owns with composer Asmund Skuterud.

The album is filled with his own lyrical music in the crossroads between classical and jazz, sometimes also joined by cello, violin and flugelhorn. Ola’s first solo piano CD, Stone Rose, was released in October, 2007 on the Grammy® nominated label 2L, and is available in stores worldwide as well as on and iTunes. Walton Music is the exclusive publisher of Gjeilo’s music for choir. His publishers include Walton Music, Oxford University Press and Musikk-Huset. The music of New York City based composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo has been performed and recorded in more than 25 countries worldwide in venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Miami’s Knight Concert Hall and Jackie Gleason Theatre, and the National Galleries in London and Washington DC. After attending the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the Royal College of Music in London, he completed his Master’s Degree in composition at The Juilliard School of Music in 2006.

Born in Norway in 1978, Gjeilo began studying jazz, classical piano and composition at the age of seven.

Ola gjeilo youtube