Steingrimur Rohloff

Picture: Matt Ramsey

Steingrimur Rohloff was born in Reykjavik in 1971. He studied composition with Krzysztof Meyer at the Musikhochschule Köln and later at the Paris Conservatoire with Gérard Grisey and Marco Stroppa, electronic music with Laurent Cuniot and Luis Naon and orchestration with Marc-André Dalbavie. In 1999 he attended a course at the Ircam and 2001-2002 he studied electronic music in Cologne with Hans-Ulrich Humpert.

Steingrimur has received numerous prizes for his compositions. In 2005 he received a one-year scholarship by Ensemble Modern whom he collaborated with in several projects. His works were commissioned and supported by various institutions and foundations.

Rohloffs music is regularly performed at European festivals and in over 20 countries worldwide by Ensemble Modern, Caput, Aton Ensemble, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Ensemble 2000, String Trio Zilliacus/Persson/Raitinen, Ensemble Alpha, MIN-Ensemble and soloists like Rolf-Erik Nystrøm, Tinna Thorsteinsdottir and others.

The saxophone concerto was initiated and commissioned by Rolf-Erik Nystrøm in 2001. The core of the piece is the intense cooperation between the interpreter and the composer in order to explore unusual playing modes with the aim to widen and stretch the colour-range of that piece: as if searching the inside sound world of the instrument. The piece proceeds in loosely connected movements from a diffuse morphology to a more concretely pointed outline using multiphonics, quarter-tones, slap-tongue, glissandi and noise-elements. Göran Bergendal reviewed the Concerto: "-- the dazzling diversity of the Icelander Steingrímur Rohloff’s concerto for the infinitely fascinating Norwegian saxophonist Rolf-Erik Nystrøm – a witches’ brew of cracked, stumbling, singing, boasting, dancing, screaming music far outside the standard templates of the solo concerto." (Nordic Sounds, 2002)

www.steingrimur-rohloff.de