SVERRE INDRIS JONER (born 1963, in Oslo) is a composer, arranger, orchestra leader, pianist, percussionist (and occasional author, illustrator, actor etc.). He has founded and lead a number of orchestras and bands, most of them associated with Latin American music. These include the Hovedøen Social Club, Electrocutango, La Descarga, Tango for 3, for which he has either composed or arranged their entire repertoires.
He has also composed or arranged for a number of concert repertoires for symphony orchestras both locally in Norway and abroad. Particularly highly-acclaimed are his symphonic tango projects as well as “Clasicos a lo cubano”, where his groundbreaking salsa arrangements of classical pieces for symphony orchestra with the KORK (Norwegian Radio Orchestra) hit #1 on the world music sales list in Mexico. He has also composed for a number of plays and dance performances including Lullaby, @lice, Tanghost and Mater Nexus.
With his cousin Johannes Joner and his nephew Kristoffer Joner, both professional actors, he has acted in, co-written the script and composed the music for the plays Joner & Joner & Joner as well as Et par tre herrer med bart (A couple of three men with a moustache).
As a soloist, Joner has worked with a number of symphony orchestras, including The BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Munchner Rundfunk Radio Orchester, Deutsche Kammer-Philharmonie (Bremen), the Dresdner Philharmonie, Junge Philharmonie Salzburg, Komische Oper (Berlin), Orquesta del Gran Teatro Alicia Alonso (the Cuban Opera Orchestra), Gøteborg Symfoniker and all of the Norwegian orchestras. He also composes, conducts and plays with chamber orchestras, brass bands and big bands, and has scored feature film, shorts, and documentaries.
Joner received the Kardemommestipendiet (grant) in 2001 from NOPA. The music he wrote for the play TanGhost won the Edvard Prize in 2005 from TONO and he also was given the prestigious title “Academico Correspondiente” at the Academia Nacional del Tango de la República Argentina, working under the auspices of national poet Horacio Ferrer. With music from his CD “Con cierto toque de tango” he was triple-nominated for the Music Editors Prize in 2017.
Joner studied music at the University of Oslo, film music composition at Lillehammer University College and has travelled widely throughout Latin America studying local music forms. He has had periods of study in Cuba, Argentina, Peru and Brazil. He is widely considered to be the doyen of Latin American music in Norway. He teaches Cuban genre studies at the Norwegian Music School, and course of practical rhythm at the Barratt Due Music Institute. Joner has also been the Artistic Director of the international talent project at the Førde Traditional and World Music Festival international for two years.