Elsa Nilsson Quartet
Elsa Nilsson – flutes
Sebastian Noelle
Ben Zwerin – Bass
Hamir Artwal – Drums
Flutist and composer Elsa Nilsson explores unlikely connections across society and the natural world. The Gothenburg native left Sweden for Seattle in 2005 before settling in Brooklyn in 2010. Her openness and refinement have prompted collaboration with Jon Cowherd, Chris Morrissey, Karl Berger, Robert Dick, Jamie Baum, Jessica Lurie, Rodrigo Recabarren, Marty Kenney, Santiago Leibson, Mark Ferber, Sebastian Noelle, Tina Raymond, Emma Dayhuff, the CMS improvisers Orchestra, Vinny Golia, Brad Shepik, Jovino Santos Neto, Chuck Deardorf, Jim Knapp, Dawn Clement and Bill Frisell. Elsa has appeared at Nefertiti Jazz Club and Victoriateatern (Sweden), Winter Jazzfest, Earshot Jazz Festival, Nublu Jazz Festival, National Sawdust, Blue Note Jazz Club, Cornelia Street Cafe, 55 Bar, The Owl Music Parlor, Shapeshifter Lab, Roulette and Rockwood Music Hall, among other venues. Solo leader releases include Pulses (2023), Atlas Of Sound – Coast Redwoods (2022), Dark Is Light Is (2021), Hindsight (2020), After Us (2018) and Salt Wind (2017). In fall 2024 she’s poised to issue Project Oasis, the second Atlas of Sound release, researched in Patagonia. She’s the 2018 winner of the National Flute Association’s Jazz Flute Competition, and the recipient of multiple Chamber Music America grants, including a 2022 New Jazz Works grant for Band of Pulses. Elsa graduated from Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet in Gothenburg; she received her bachelor of music from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and her master of music from NYU. She has served as a professor of Rhythmic Analysis and Socially Engaged Artistry at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music since 2020, and led master classes at University of Madison, Kansas University, CCM, Cincinnati Public Schools Jazz Academy, Indiana University and Ann Arbor Arts Clinic.
