May 15th, 2022 7pm Stage 2
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Elsa Nilsson
Flutist and composer Elsa Nilsson celebrates the release of Coast Redwoods 41°32’09.8”N 124°04’35.5”W on ears&eyes Records, the first release from her Atlas of Sound series inspired by human connection to locations of the natural world, at Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2 on May 15th at 7 pm. Lush and melodic, at times subversive, Nilsson’s trio invites listeners into dense woody thickets where breezes idle and sounds of footsteps disappear into layers of pine needle. The ten-movement suite emerged from improvised material Nilsson recorded at two sets of coordinates, a month apart from each other. When she began composing in earnest, the Brooklyn-based artist out of Sweden had in mind her personnel: Jon Cowherd on piano and Chris Morrissey on bass, two fiercely exploratory artists who intuit aspects of Nilsson’s orchestration and enter each sound grove with nimble awareness.
Elsa Nilsson is a Flute Player, Composer and Educator from Gothenburg, Sweden currently residing in Brooklyn, New York where she can often be found playing at The 55 Bar, Bar Bayeux and other New York Jazz venues. She is Faculty at The New School College for Performing Arts where she teaches Rhythmic Analysis. Nilsson approaches music with an attitude of inclusiveness. She believes there is a space to be found in music that gives us the freedom to be exactly who we are. This leads her to make some unconventional choices in her compositions. The lines between styles become blurred and rules get bent in order to communicate the raw emotion that ties us all together. Nilsson draws inspiration from every aspect of life and music that moves her, combining them through the lens of Jazz to create a deeply personal expression that she hopes is universally relatable.