Hans Kristian Kjos Sørensen

Professional career

Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen started to play music at the age of seven and grew up playing percussion, piano and tuba. He studied percussion at the The Norwegian Academy of Music. After a short period as principal percussionist in Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (1989) and later Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (1990–91), he went on to study at the Banff Centre for fine Arts in Canada and at the Conservatoire National de Région Versailles with Sylvio Gualda, where he obtained the "Prix de Perfectionnement à l'unanimité". He is also a prizewinner from CIEM-competition in Geneva 1992.

He has worked with composers like Henrik Hellstenius, George Crumb, Rolf Wallin, Brett Dean, Svante Henryson, Åse Hedstrøm and Per Nørgård, who dedicated to him the piece "Isternia" for cimbalom solo in 2010. As a soloist he has played with ensembles like Philharmonia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, The Norwegian Opera, BIT20, The Norwegian Soloist Choir and The Norwegian Chamberorchestra.

He has been featured on a number of albums with improvised and notated music in jazz, baroque and classical genres, recorded for Ultron Records, BIS, ECM, Deutsche Grammophon, and Aurora. His solo-album OPEN won the Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian Grammy) for 2003.

Kjos Sørensen is currently professor in percussion at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

Discography

A partial list of his recordings includes: