page_title: Ole Morten Vågan
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ole Morten Vågan / Career
caption_attribution_description: Motif, Jazz Fest Brno, Metro Music Bar
context_page_description: Ole Morten Vågan is a Norwegian jazz musician and composer, and the older brother of guitarist Petter Vågan. He is known from several recordings and is currently acting as artistic director for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Vagan is also known from cooperating with some of the most influential musicians and composers internationally and has released eight albums as a leader, recently with the TJO, as well as six albums with his group Motif and one with the group The Deciders.
context_section_description: Vågan was born in Brønnøysund. He began his career as a jazz musician in the Nord-Norsk Ungdomstorband at the end of the 1990s and launched his own project "Ole Morten Vågan Projekt" on tour for Nordnorsk Jazzforum in 1999. This was also documented with a concert for radio on NRK P2, Jazzklubben, hosted by Erling Wicklund recorded at Nordland Musikkfestuke. He was a graduate of the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonservatorium (1998–2002).
  In 1999 he formed the quintet Motif, together with Atle Nymo (tenor saxophone), Mathias Eick (trumpet), David Thor Jonsson (piano) and Håkon Mjåset Johansen (drums), where he composes the main part of the repertoire himself. In 2000 Vågan lead the band Motif at Moldejazz and was awarded "NOPA's Composer Prize" the same year, as well as "Young Nordic Jazzcomets" the year after, at Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
  As both a bassist and composer, he has worked at the intersection of improvised and notated music, and in 2011 published his seventh disc with the aforementioned MOTIF, to critical acclaim. In 2009 he wrote an hour's music to a tentett, which besides Motif's permanent members, included Mathias Eick, Mattias Ståhl, Ola Kvernberg, Håkon Kornstad, and Petter Vågan. Vågan mottok DnB NOR prisen på Kongsberg Jazzfestival i 2009, and came back the following year with new music, this time for a band consisting of influential musicians from the European improvisational scenes: Axel Dörner and Rudi Mahall (DE), as well as Fredrik Ljungkvist and Jon Fält (SE).
caption: Vågan in 2010 at the Jazz Fest Brno.
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