Bio
“a phenomenal musical conversation…”
– Erik Wallrup, Svenska Dagbladet 2016
Jordi Carrasco Hjelm is a Swedish classical double bass player working with chamber music and improvisation. He lives in the Netherlands where he is a core member of the Asko Schönberg Ensemble who are a leading ensemble in the field of contemporary music and collaborates with composers from around the world premiering new works on their home stage Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ in Amsterdam.
He is an original member of the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra led by the violinist Hugo Ticciati. The ensemble consists of chamber musicians from all over Europe and plays regularly in the Wigmore Hall in London where they are ensemble in residence in 2024 as well as in different series and festivals across Europe.
As a passionate advocate for free improvisation on stages for classical music and for chamber music as an inherently improvisational form he has performed in many European chamber music festivals such as the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht, Felix! Festival Köln, Ghent Festival, Miesbach Kammermusik festival, KMF Eibergen, KMF Sylt and most notably as a regular guest in Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland.
In 2024 he is especially looking forward to the release of a new album recording of the complete trio sonatas of the baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka and a new piece by Tonia Ko together with a.o. Olivier Stankiewicz and Theo Plat for the label Challenge Records.
Jordi is a multifaceted freelance musician and has been a guest player with a diverse set of ensembles such as the Oculi Ensemble (UK), the location-based improvisation concept Buro Nieuw Perspectief (NL), LUDWIG (NL), Matthew Barley Ensemble (UK), Arte Frizzante (CH), Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (DE), Radio Philharmonisch Orkest (NL), the Swedish Radio Orchestra, and has played with a wide array of internationally renowned musicians including Maria Wloszczowska, Julian Arp, Gwilym Simcock, Priya Mitchel, Luke Hsu, Ema Nikolovska and Abel Celacoe.
He studied classical double bass with Rick Stotijn and Olivier Thiery and finished his studies in Conservatorium van Amsterdam with a Masters degree in improvisation studying with the jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis.
Jordi has a keen interest in improvisation, composition and programming. A creative musician from the very beginning he started playing with the folk music band Garizim out of his parents basement in 2011. The group went on to play all over the country and released two albums and an EP. Since 2015 he has been developing new improvisations together with the dutch improviser, singer and composer Yanna Pelser.
In 2016 he created a piece of improvised music for a sounding sculpture by the artist Hanneke de Munck that was premiered in the chamber music hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and their collaboration was continued with a performance in Hanneke’s exposition in Sijthoff Cultuur in Leiden in 2017 and a premier of a new composition for the sculpture “Het Propheet en het Verlangen” in NDSM Fuse in Amsterdam in 2022.
In 2014 he was part of creating the Berlin based group c / o chamber orchestra that works with principles on non-hierarchical collaboration.
He has premiered some of his own pieces in the festival KMF Sylt, Ölberg Kirche Berlin and headed the creation of a conceptual chamber music program with members of the c / o Chamber Orchestra including his own compositions in Mariehman, Åland in 2022.
Jordi has played on two studio albums with O/modernt, White Light (Signum Classics 2018) and From the ground up (Signum Classics 2019) that won the Gramophone Award for best concept album in 2020. The c /o Chamber Orchestra released its debut album Divertissement! on BIS records in 2021 and was nominated for Album of the year by Presto Music. The folk music band Garizim released original music on the albums Fri (Gammalthea 2011), See the birds are coming (Gammalthea 2015) and the self released EP Moments in Between.