Ola Gjeilo

Composer-pianist Ola Gjeilo has a meditative, cinematic style on albums he releases under his own name. He also composes choral music, and in his recordings of these works, he often contributes piano improvisations over his compositions. Gjeilo (YAY-lo) was born in 1978. His parents were Inge and Anne-May Gjeilo, and the household was musically eclectic, with classical, jazz, pop, and folk sounds in the environment. At five, Ola took up the piano, and by seven, he could read music. He took composition lessons from Wolfgang Plagge even before entering the Norwegian Academy of ...