Jono El Grande

Jono El Grande (born 29 July 1973) is the stage name of Jon Andreas Håtun.

Jono El Grande is an autodidactic Norwegian composer, band leader, guitarist and conductor. He is the leader of the Norway Symphony Orchestra. Jono El Grande claims that his extreme mixture of genres and timbres is a result of his musical vision: moving away from the traditional concept of 'music as a result of social processes'.

Although Jono El Grande is enjoying growth on the European avant-garde scene, he is also known for his eccentric and amusing performance art/dada-inspired live shows. In 2000, he formed The Jono El Grande Orchestra, renamed Jono El Grande & The Luxury Band in 2005.

Jono El Grande has released eight albums, Utopian Dances (Krusedull Prod. - 1999), Fevergreens (Rune Grammofon - 2003), Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon - 2009), "Phantom Stimulance" (Rune Grammofon - 2010), The Choko King (Rune Arkiv - 2011) and "Melody of a Muddled Mason" (Rune Grammofon - 2015), in addition to contributing with compositions on other projects (both Rune Grammofons anniversary albums Money Will Ruin Everything 1 & 2" and on Wire Tapper #21", the avant-garde music magazine The Wire's 21st edition of their CD series). Jono El Grande served as festival composer for Happy Days 2007, presented by Ny Musikk, the Norwegian section of International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). He also became a member of the Norwegian Society Of Composers in the fall of 2010. He played at the Zappanale #22 (August 2011) and world premiered a new orchestral piece for the Bergen-located sinfonietta orchestra BIT20 Ensemble December 2011. In 2014, he wrote and released the classical piece "Til Anbjørg" (For Anbjorg) for his late wife. In November 2014, he world premiered a new piece for Trondheim Sinfonietta at Rockheim in Trondheim.

In 2017, he married designer and visual artist Ingunn Birkeland.

Read more about this composer on Wikipedia.