Per Husby - Biography
Per Husby was born on the 2nd April 1949 in Oslo.He studied the piano at the Music Conservatory in Oslo from 1962 to 1967 and acoustics at the Norwegian Technical College in Trondheim, graduating as a Civil Engineer in 1973. He also studied music at the University of Trondheim and at the Berklee College of Music, Boston,USA.
Between 1971 and 1980 Husby was active as a Jazz musician in Trondheim, both leading his own groups and playing with Bjørn Alterhaug and Asmund Bjørken. In addition, from 1975 to 1978 he led a septet with K.Riisnæs, B.Johansen, H.Bergesen, B.Anker Steen, C.M.Iversen and S.E. Gaardvik which would exclusively perform Husbys' compositions and arrangements. From 1977 to 1980 besides being Musical Director of Trøndelag Theatre, he was active as a performer, playing with amongst others Pepper Adams and James Moody. From 1980 to 1983 he led his own quintet, played regularly with Laila Dalseth, and performed throughout the 80's with many musicians, amongst whom were Kenny Wheeler and Chet Baker.
Husby, together with members of a 13-piece Jazz ensemble, including Karin Krog, Georgie Fame, John Surman, Frode Thingnæs, Jan Allen, Dusko Goykovich and Knut Riisnæs, have performed their own compositions at the Molde and Kongsberg Jazz Festivals. This ensemble, the Per Husby Orchestra, released, with various combinations of artists, two albums, Dedications(1985) and Your Eyes(1987). Dedications, was awarded the Norwegian Grammy in 1985. In 1995 he recorded a third album with the same instrumentation – this time in New York. If You Could See Me Now features a crew that includes some of NewYork’s most experienced jazz musicians. In 1989 Husby was awarded the Buddy-Statuette, Norway’s foremost Jazz award.
Husby composed the music for the Norwegian Broadcasting Company’s documentary series 2048, which was awarded the first prize in the Prix Italia 1988. He further developed the music from the series into a 30-minute Jazz suite for sextet, string quartet and voice with the title Notes for Nature. His work includes a large body of compositions for Big Band and smaller jazz ensembles, and other works deserving note are Poesi(1986) for three sopranos, brass quintet and jazz soloists as well as Two pieces for brass quintet (1987). In recent years he has composed a number of song to poems by Anne Lande.
Husby has lived in Oslo since 1980 and works as a free-lance musician, with regular assignments for the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, both as musician and as arranger/composer. During the 90s, Husby devoted most of his time to his position as a musical director and arranger for one of Norway’s most popular TV music shows, DaCapo. During the recent years he has revived his activities as a composer, mainly through such works as Strålar mellom fjell (2000) for big band, mixed choir and soloists, Vårsong and For ein dag (2002) for mixed choir, Half A Nice Day (2002) for big band, Inverness Wedding (2001) and Mythos (2002) for Concert band – in addition to a number of songs written to texts penned by Chan Parker.
Husby was Chairman of the Association of Norwegian Jazz Musicians from 1983 to 1985 and contributing editor for the magazine Jazznytt from 1981-1984. He is active as a writer and cultural commentator..
Headlines:
