Ola Gjeilo | News | Ola Gjeilo releases brand new solo piano album ‘Night’

Norwegian composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo presents a stunning collection of brand-new original works for solo piano, composed and performed by Gjeilo himself. NIGHT is an intimate and meditative collection of peaceful piano music, inspired by Gjeilo’s interpretation of the twilight hours in the place he now calls home – New York City. The album is released today (24 January 2020) on Decca Classics.

Gjeilo has evolved a musical style which is at once contemporary and familiar, characterised by warm harmonies, flowing melodies and gently rocking, repeated figures. Gjeilo is an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, and the new album follows the highly successful Winter Songs (2017) and Ola Gjeilo (2016). NIGHT is Gjeilo’s first entirely solo piano album to be released on Decca.

Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Gjeilo’s 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.

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. 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.

Gjeilo’s albums include the bestselling Ola Gjeiloand Winter Songs on the Decca Classics label, featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway. In 2015, the Choir of King’s College Cambridge performed Gjeilo’s ‘Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium)’ at the annual BBC-televised Christmas Eve service. He is currently composer-in-residence with DCINY and Albany Pro Musica. Gjeilo’s music is published by Walton Music and Boosey & Hawkes.