Filip Jers

The international respected harmonica player Filip Jers (b. 1986) has been called ”Swedish Harmonica Sensation” by the music critics in Europe. He plays all sorts of harmonicas; from the sophisticated chromatic harmonica to the earthy bluesharp and the very rare and mysterious bassharmonica. He also performs on jawharp, guitar and accordion.

Filip loves to improvise and compose music and moves easily between jazz, blues, folk, world music, country, pop, rock, classical and film music.

He became double worldchampion on harmonica at the age of 18 at World Harmonica Festival 2005 in Trossingen, Germany. Since then he has worked as freelance musician, with studiosessions and teaching harmonica. He tours a lot and has visited 17 countries to play music, for example: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Croatia, Holland, Finland and Canada.

Filip Jers received his master degree in jazz from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 2011, being the first harmonicaplayer ever to study there.

• Born 1986 in Lund and raised in Höör, southern Sweden.
• Starts to play cello at the age of 8, but get seriously about music when turning thirteen, then with guitar and harmonica as the main instruments. During elementary- and highschool he studies and play many instruments; piano, guitar, cello, bass, mandolin, basson, flute and accordion.
• 2003 and 2004 Filip wins jazzprize in Musik Direkt, national competition for young musicians and performs in Croatia and Belgium.
• 2004 wins gold at Danish Harmonica Championship in Odense, Denmark.
• 2005 Filip wins Jazz&Blues - two golds in World Harmonica Championships, Trossingen Germany. The contest has been around since 1950 and the only one else that has won the same things as Filip is the canadian Carlos Del Junco.
• 2006 joins ”Hering Harmonicas” from Brazil and starts to play their instruments.
• 2006 Filip gets accepted at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with chromatic harmonica as his main instrument. He is the first harmonicaplayer to study there ever!
• 2008 he joins the international folkmusic band ”Stockholm Lisboa Project” and starts to tour around in Europe. He appears often on radio- and tvproductions, among others Portugal National TV and German WDR-radio.
• 2008 forms ”Filip Jers Quartet” jazzquartet that plays original and mainstreamjazz, tours in Sweden and appears on national radio.
• 2009 the CD Diagonal with Stockholm Lisboa Project is released and gets selected as German Record Critics Award 2009 and nomination in Best Group and Best Cross-cultural Collaboration in the english worldmusicmagazine Songlines ,World Music Awards 2010.
• Filip tours and plays music in many countries; Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, UK, Romania, Finland and Canada. Totally he has visited 17 countries as a harmonicaplayer.
• 2010 he participates in ”The Martelli Tapes” a musicprogram on swedish national TV.
• Toured intense during 2010, worked with GUBB – Swedens best youth BigBand and did a big tour in Sweden with Stockholm Lisboa Project produced by Rikskonserter.
• 2011 he will graduate with a Master of Fine Arts in Jazz from The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.
• 2011 he also releases Spiro, he first solo-CD, where he has composed all music and plays all the instruments. The music is a mixture of Folk, Jazz and Blues with the soulfull harmonica as main focus.
• 2011 Filip Jers stops endorsing Hering Harmonicas and joins and starts to endorse Suzuki Harmonicas from Japan.
• Filip tours around in Sweden and also Germany and Spain. He also expand his audience and performs in South-Korea.
• 2011 to be continued !

• 2003 Musik Direkt jazzprize
• 2003 Åmåls Junior Blues Prize
• 2004 Danish Munspelsmästerskapen 1:st prize
• 2004 Musik Direkt JMI International prize
• 2004 Höörs Community Cultureprize
• 2005 World Harmonica Championships 1:a prize
• 2006 Sundsgården Musicianscholarship
• 2006 Lions Musicscholarship Höör
• 2009 Kungliga Musikhögskolan Studentgrant
• 2010 SWEJS Göteborg Jazz Scholarship
• 2010 Harry Arnolds Jazz Standy-By Prize
• 2010 Kungliga Musikaliska Akademin Jazzgrant