Gilles Grethen
Guitarist & Composer
Born in 1994, guitarist and composer Gilles Grethen belongs to the young generation of Luxembourgish jazz musicians. Before he found his way to the guitar and jazz, he was classically trained and played the violin and clarinet. From his strong interest in classical symphonic music with its enormous richness of colors, he draws the ability to make his guitar playing orchestral and multidimensional.
Besides his Gilles Grethen Quartet, with which he released three albums, he also plays in the Nu jazz band Linq and the duo CHROMA with pianist Sebastian Voltz. The focus of his artistic work however is on composing and arranging for different projects, such as lately a new big band repertoire for the Gilles Grethen Big Band or compositions for jazz quartet and string orchestra for his album “State of Mind”. Other projects include compositions and arrangements for film, among them the music for Catherine Dauphin’s short film “Coffee & Water”, as well as compositions for the Luxembourg National Jazz Orchestra and the Opus78 Orchestra, both commissioned by the Ministry of Culture.
Grethen has a bachelor’s degree in jazz guitar from the Hochschule für Musik Saar as well as master’s degrees in both jazz guitar and jazz composition and arrangement from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim.
