Tobias Stavngaard is an award-winning trombonist, composer and arranger based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Holding a master’s degree in composition and trombone, he is among the most active and acclaimed young musicians on the Scandinavian jazz scene.
December 5th, 2024
Won the ‘Big Band Composition Contest for Young Baltic and Nordic Composers 2024’
Tobias won the competition with his piece 'To Be.' The final was held in Riga, where the Latvian Radio Big Bandperformed the piece.
June, 2024
Graduated with a Master of Music degree in composition and trombone
Tobias completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Danish National Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark. For his final project, he conducted a concert featuring original music written for big band.
November, 2023
Won the 2nd Prize at the 'Nordic Composer Contest 2023’
Tobias placed second in the competition with his piece, ‘Dead as a Dodo.’ The Odense Jazz Orchestra performed the piece during the finals, which were held in Odense, Denmark.
October, 2023
Released album
’By the Last Man’
Shortly after its release, the album was named 'Album of the Week' at the Danish radio station "P8 Jazz." It was released with the Tobias Stavngaard Sextet.
March, 2022
Released album
’Historier om dette og hint’
The album, released with the Tobias Stavngaard Sextet, has been streamed more than a million times since its release.
September, 2020
Started playing with the
Aarhus Jazz Orchestra
Tobias began playing second trombone in the highly acclaimed Danish big band, Aarhus Jazz Orchestra.
Musician
Composer
Prizes
2024: Won the ‘Big Band Composition Contest for Young Baltic and Nordic Composers 2024’. The final round was held in Riga, where the Latvian Radio Big Band, with tenor saxophone soloist Gints Pabēržs, performed Tobias’ piece ‘To Be’. The international jury consisted of Jon Georg Balke, Peter Danemo, Jievaras Jasinskis, Andris Dzenitis, and Jukkis Uotila.
2023: Won the second prize in the ‘Nordic Composer Contest 2023’ with the piece ‘Dead as a Dodo,’ written for big band. The jury found that the piece was the second best out of a total of 19 participants from five different countries.
Selected works
To Be (for big band, premeired by the Latvian Radio Big Band, 2024)
Lonesome George (for big band, 2024)
Dead as a Dodo (for big band, premeired by the Odense Jazz Orchestra, 2023)
By the Last Man (for jazz sextet, album with five compositions, 2023)
Historier om dette og hint (for jazz sextet, album with five compositions, 2022)
“Stavngaard is on top of his material - he imparts calmness to his compositions that do not doubt or waver. He has an overview and exudes maturity.”
Arranger
In recent years, Tobias has frequently been hired by artists to arrange their original compositions.
Selected commissions:
Jazz horn arrangements for Songs to Comfort by Marie Mørck.
Big band arrangement of Balance, written by tenor saxophonist Michael Bladt and performed by the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra.
Pop horn arrangements for several releases by pop artist Elias Bendix.
In addition, Tobias has created several transcriptions and arrangements for projects under his own name. Please visit the webshop to browse through all the sheet music.
Educator
Tobias is currently teaching jazz trombone students at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. His teaching is flexible, drawing on his experience in presenting master classes, teaching both larger groups and individual students.
Tobias offers lessons in trombone playing, improvisation, arranging, composing, ear training, music theory, band leadership, and music notation. He is fluent in both Danish and English.
“Tobias works very meticulously. He quickly deciphers my questions and gives me meaningful answers that advance both my playing and my understanding of music in general. I can easily take the lessons Tobias provides me and apply them during practice at home. I get tools that I can use in a multitude of ways, and this has made me progress quickly since starting to take lessons with Tobias.”