Jon Øivind Ness

Jon Øivind Ness (b. 1968) studied guitar (1987—89) and composition (1989—1995) at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Olav Anton Thommessen, Lasse Thoresen and Ragnar Søderlind as his mentors. Ness won the Norwegian Society of Composers ‘Work of the Year’ award in 1993 for his orchestral work Schatten. He was nominated for the Edvard Prize in 1997, 2000 (2 nominations) and 2002, winning in ‘97 and ‘00 for Cascading Ordure and Dangerous Kitten, respectively.
  Ness was composer of the year for Trondheim Symphony Orchestra (2002—03), Oslo Philharmonic (2012—13) and Bodø Sinfonietta (2012). Ness’s music has been nominated three times for “Spellemannprisen” (Norwegian Grammy Awards), and he won in 2010 with the CD Low Jive, together with the Oslo Philharmonic. Ness’s tonal language is based on the use of bi- and polytonality developed structurally (or sometimes only coloured) with quarter tones. He tries to approach microtonality from different angles — spectral, untuned, melodic (especially from Arabic traditional music). In recent years he has devoted himself more to arranging music in other genres. His project in 2012 together with Diamanda Gálás and KORK was singled out by Wire editor Rob Young as the third most important international musical event of 2012. Since then he has tried to create artistically challenging arrangements in which classical instruments replace rock instruments using various contemporary music techniques, something which culminated in the Bowie project that he undertook together with Bård Bratlie, Peter Estdahl, Thomas Rimul and KORK in January 2020. He has also arranged/adapted music of Sibelius, Grieg, Sæverud, Clash, Burt Bacharach, Javid Afsari Rad and Harpreet Bansal.