Björn Wennås, Guitarist, Composer & Arranger.

Björn Wennås’ roles as a musician ranges from performer, composer and arranger to educator, author and Music Director. He is equally at home in a rock club as he is performing mediterranean music in a performing arts center or performing Shubert in a chamber music setting.

He is currently the Music Director for Newpoli, an Italian world/folk ensemble. He also co-leads Carmen Marsico & Zafarán as well as plays guitar in the Irish group ISHNA. He is one of only a handful of people outside of Italy that plays the 10 stringed Chitarra Battente.

In 1999 he moved from his native Sweden to Boston USA to attend Berklee College of Music as well as Long School of Music Of Bard College from which he received his Master of Music. During his years in Boston he has remained very active. He was nominated in 2004 for the Just Plain Folk’s Award for best jazz vocal composition (Love Song) along with the likes of Judi Silvano. His quintet was also selected to perform at the first annual New Music Festival in Boston, celebrating composers that are pushing the edge. He was a finalist in the International Massimo Urbani Award 2005, a jazz soloist competition that takes place in Camerino, Italy. In 2016 he was a finalist together with Carmen Marsico in the USA Songwriting competition for their song Sciure d'arance. The last few years he has been focusing on touring, composing and recording with touring Newpoli. The group won the Independent Music Award for Best World Traditional album in 2016 at Lincoln Center in NYC, became finalists in USA Songwriting Competition for the song Sciure d’arance as well as So’ emigrant’, were nominated for Premio Nazionale Citta' Di Loano Per La Musica Tradizionale Italiana three times.

2017 Iguana Awards recipients. 2018 Folk Alliance International Offical Showcase Artists. 2019 Library of Congress Artist. 

Björn