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Soren Moller

33-year old pianist/composer Soren Moller was raised in a small town in Denmark. He began playing piano at the age of 8, learning both classical and jazz piano from local public school teachers in the community. At the age of 16 Soren Moller was making a living as a piano teacher as well as an accompanist and had started taking lessons in jazz piano from some of Denmark most well known pianists. At 19 he was admitted to the Rhythmic Music Con-servatory in Copenhagen, Denmark. After graduation Soren Moller continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Here he studied with piano great Kenny Barron as well as Garry Dial and Fred Hersch as a Fulbright Scholarship recipient.

After moving to New York in 2002 Soren Moller quickly earned a reputation as a formidable piano talent. As a leader he was accepted to host an ensemble of the most distinguished musicians from the Manhattan School of Music to a performance at the Carnegie Hall as part of the Carnegie Hall Workshop for Jazz Ensembles.

Together with trombone player Chris Washburne and saxophonist Ole Mathisen, Soren Moller has founded the NYNDK Jazz Collective. An ensemble consisting of established musicians from the Scandinavian and the New York jazz scene. The NYNDK Jazz Collective has toured extensively in Scandinavia and performed at Jazz At Lincoln Cen-ter. New York Times Nate Chinen has recognized the NYNDK Jazz Collective as a “pointedly cosmopolitan post-bop collective”.

As a composer Soren Moller has contributed with compositions for his own ensembles including the Soren Moller Trio and the Soren Moller & Dick Oatts Duo as well as the newly released CD A Tribute To Trane, featuring famous drummer Antonio Sanchez. In 2007 Soren Moller premiered his big band suite Three Speeches at The Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Copenhagen and has since worked as a big band composer and soloist with various big bands.Soren Moller has also performed and/or recorded with a number of today’s most re-known musicians, including Antonio Sanchez, Dick Oatts, Mark Turner, Jason Marsalis, Cameron Brown, Ari Honig, John Benitez, Tony Moreno, Scott Neumann, Anders Bergcrantz, Barak Mori, Obed Calvaire, and Francois Moutin among others. Soren Moller has toured in Countries such as: England, Germany, Norway, Italy, Holland, Zimbabwe, South Africa, USA and Den-mark.

Gear

Nordlead Synth, Korg CX3 Organ,


Tags

7
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If saxophonist/composer/bandleader Benjamin Koppel has proven anything over the last few years, it is that he has no trouble finding sources of inspiration for his work. Whether it is just for the sake of blowing with a redoubtable rhythm section in the form of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade on Perspective (Cowbell Music, 2023) or illustrating his own range of style with The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue (Cowbell Music, 2020) and The Art of The ...

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Kenneth Dahl Knudsen: Clockstopper

Read "Clockstopper" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Not much is known about Danish bassist Kenneth Dahl Knudsen, even his own website reveals little about his personal story, only that he has won several awards, including being voted “Jazz musician of 2010 in northern Denmark," has been fortunate to have performed the music he loves for most of his life and claims inspiration from the music of John Coltrane and Igor Stravinsky. Delivering his second album as leader on Clockstopper, Knudsen leads a core quintet of international players, ...

190
Album Review

Soren Moller: Christian X Variations

Read "Christian X Variations" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


Quasi-historians suggest that the story, in which Christian X, King of Denmark dictated that all Danes, including himself, would wear the Star of David as a symbol of solidarity with his Jewish subjects, if the Nazis forced the Danish Jews to do so, is apocryphal. The profound nature of the King's support for his Jewish subjects and his fierce declaration of Danish nationalism amid the then-rise of Nazism is at the heart of the celebration of this suite. Indeed, pianist/composer ...

263
Album Review

Soren Moller: Christian X Variations

Read "Christian X Variations" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Making a special social statement with his music, Danish-born pianist Soren Moller honors the memory of Danish King Christian X who, during World War II, protected his country's Jews from discrimination and deportation by the Nazis. The effort to protect and unite fellow countrymen served as the inspiration for the compositions on Christian X Variations. These are five powerful compositions, arranged for both a conventional quartet and a wind quintet, with Moller blending elements of jazz and classical ...

308
Album Review

Soren Moller: Christian X Variations

Read "Christian X Variations" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While Danish-born pianist Soren Moller and American saxophonist Dick Oatts--of Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz orchestra fame--have had an ongoing partnership on record, the seeds of this union have finally reached full bloom with Christian X Variations. The music on this recording, written to honor the Danish King who made significant efforts to protect Jews from deportation and discrimination during World War II, is easily the most ambitious and powerful that Moller has ever created. Whether veering into ...

330
Album Review

Soren Moller / Dick Oatts: The Clouds Above

Read "The Clouds Above" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The Clouds Above is the continuation of a duet project that pianist Soren Moller and saxophonist Dick Oatts began with Storytelling (Audial, 2005). Like that release, The Clouds Above brags all originals save for one classical adaptation, in this case Sergei Prokofiev's Balcony Scene from his 1935 ballet, Romeo and Juliet, here captured lyrically by Moller's most restrained pianism. Oatts plays alto on the piece, weaving in and out of the scaffolding erected by Moller. The effect is one of ...

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Recording

Pianist/Composer Soren Moller Releases New CD "Christian X Variations" on Audial Records.

Pianist/Composer Soren Moller Releases New CD "Christian X Variations" on Audial Records.

Source: Two for the Show Media

Some jazz musicians do one thing well, but that one thing is all that they do. Not Soren Moller. Flexibility is the driving force that motivates this Danish-born pianist-composer to continually explore. Moller is as comfortable playing his original compositions in a duo or quartet configuration as he is interpreting the work of Miles Davis or Rachmaninoff in a trio format or leading a big band. Nor does Moller believe in surrounding himself solely with collaborators who share similar backgrounds ...

Primary Instrument

Piano

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Clockstopper

Longlife Records
2012

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Christian X Variations

Audial Records
2011

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The Clouds Above

Audial Records
2010

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