Jeppe Just Christensen

The composer Jeppe Just Christensen (b. 1978) works with various elements in his music, bearing references to everyday objects, childhood, nostalgia and musical mismatch. He uses and reuses found objects and instruments in new constellations both musically and visually, and he often builds or rebuilds the instruments himself.

One of his strong compositional principles is cutting to the bone and removing everything unnecessary, leaving only the simple material, and creating condensed and personal music. This implies the aim of finding some kind of truth in the banal and naive. Jeppe performs both as a one-man band and together with Matias Seibæk and David Hildebrandt in Jeppe Just Instituttet. Jeppe Just Instituttet also works with other ensembles such as SCENATET, with whom they released the recording Songs and Movements in 2015.

Jeppe Just Christensen is educated at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, from 1999 to 2008, where he studied with Hans Abrahamsen, Niels Rosing-Schow and Bent Sørensen. In 2005-2006 he began his Post-graduate studies at Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe with Wolfgang Rihm. 

He currently teaches composition at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he is also a part of the artistic team behind the Pulsar Festival. He furthermore leads compositional/DIY workshops with children and adults, and gives lectures at high schools and musical societies.

He has among others received The Wilhelm Hansen Award 2007, stipend from the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation 2009 and 2011-2014, the 3-year grant from The Danish Arts Foundation. His works has been performed on major festivals in Denmark and abroad, by among others Jeppe Just Instituttet, ensemble recherche, Athelas Sinfonietta, SCENATET and Klangforum Wien.

www.jeppejustchristensen.dk

Picture: Anders Børup