Jan Fadnes(Norway)
Jan Fadnes was born an October day in 1974 in Bergen, a rainy city on the western coast of Norway. After living his childhood without much contact with music he started singing in a choir fourteen years old. At 15 he used up all his savings to buy an electric piano for reasons he could not explain, and haven’t looked back since. Since he did not have a teacher in the beginning, he developed his own style of playing which he kept throughout his formal musical training at high school and university.
This more or less unique approach for playing his instrument was vital in developing his interest for composing early on, and throughout his career he has focused on improvisational music and composing in different improvisational genres. Since 2000 he has tried to juggle to careers, composing and studying philosophy with a focus on peace and conflict issues. In 2006 he came to Nepal to work at the Norwegian Embassy for 6 months, so he did not even bring his piano along, thinking he could borrow one somewhere. Four months later he had two full time jobs, playing with folk and eastern classical musicians in the evenings, working at the Embassy in the daytime. Eventually the music demanded more time, and when his contract with the Embassy was over he accepted a position as a teacher at KJC.
Jan is now a full staff member and part of the KJC teachers jazz ensemble, which is according to Dr. Gene Aitken, an ‘absolutely world class’ trio. He is also involved in a successful collaboration with the Nepali group Sukarma, which has lead to numerous concerts and a recording which will be released in the near future.