BIOGRAPHY
Tor Ingar Jakobsen is a Norwegian composer, arranger and piano player. He was educated from the University of Oslo as cand.philol in composing, jazz piano and arranging in 2004. He is mainly known for his work in the musical theater, but he also works as a concert musician, and has toured in Europe with many different bands and artists. Everything from the duo format to the full orchestra. Besides musical theater and concert playing, he has done some composing for film and TV. Parallel to his performing part, he has been lecturing at different universities and colleges.
Early Years
Tor Ingar Jakobsen was born in Lena, Østre Toten, Norway in 1973. He started taking piano lessons at the age of 6, and started to do his first paid gigs at the the age of 13. In his teens he played in different rock and pop bands, who often entertained at different local clubs, pubs and dance halls. In his later teens he got interested in jazz, and joined different jazz groups, including a big band where he tried out his first arrangements.
In 2004 he was educated from the University of Oslo as cand.philol. in jazz piano, composing and arranging. In his master thesis, he explored the differences in the improvisation styles and techniques between the jazz pianists Bill Evans and Keith Jarret. This dissertation can be found at the University library in Oslo,
During his student years, he continued playing with different jazz bands, and at this time he started to test out his first compositions, mainly in the jazz quartet format. One of his songs from this period, “Sommertanker” was selected as the summer song of the year by the national broadcast company, NRK.
Musical Theatre
Around 2010, He bagan working in musical theatre, and that has become his main focus. He has worked on many different productions, both as composer, arranger and keyboard player. Read a more complete overview of his work in this field here
Composer and arranger
Jakobsen has composed and arranged music in many different formats. Several genres in different jazz formats, such as quartets, quintets, big band and cabaret orchestras.
He has also composed and arranged in more classical styles, such as string quartets, brass quintets, choirs, wind orchestras and symphonic orchestras. Among those are the symphonic orchestra ‘The Norwegian Radio Orchestra’ (KORK) for whom he has composed and arranged several pieces; ‘Bryllupsmarsj fra Hadeland’, ‘Sommer ved Randsfjorden’ and ‘Fra Biri til Butterfly’.
Teaching
The last 15 years Jakobsen has been the jazz piano teacher for the students at Toneheim Folkehøyskole. He has also has been hired as a guest speaker at several universities and colleges around the world to talk about musical theatre, musical theatre history and composing for musical theatre. Among these are: 'Kristiania University College', 'NSKI University College', 'Bårdar', and 'The University of Oklahoma'
In 2023 Jakobsen was an artist in residence at ‘The University of Oklahoma’, working with the students at the musical theater program there. The musical ‘Adele's Journey’ had its first presentation here, a musical he created with the New York based book writer Lisa Diana Shapiro and lyricist Paul Christman.