About

ABOUT

 

Lasse Elkjaer is a Los Angeles and Copenhagen based Danish composer and orchestrator, who was shortlisted for a Robert Award nomination by the Danish Film Academy, for his orchestral score to the very first Danish Halloween feature film, "The Seekers: Thrill Night (Forsvundet til Halloween)" (2021). The Danish Halloween movie is the first Danish feature to be available for streaming at Disney+. Elkjaer gained special recognition for his award winning score for the horror short film Sticks (2018), a gothic scare ride where Elkjaer worked with Hollywood cellist Tina Guo, whose solo cello can be heard on scores by Hans Zimmer, such as Inception (2010) and The Lion King (2019).

Lasse Elkjær

Composer for Film & Television.

 

Elkjaer started his professional career in Denmark, and won his first prestigious award (Berlingske Tidene’s talent competition) at the age of 21 for Composition and Performance. While studying at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, South Danish Conservatory of Music, Elkjaer started collaborating with five-time Emmy winning composer Jacob Groth, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009). When working with Jacob Groth, Elkjaer was hired to do orchestrations on the feature film Dead Man Down (2013) starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, and TV productions Modus (2015-17) and Unforgettable (2013-16). During this time, Elkjaer also worked as an arranger and guitarist for several theater productions.


Upon completing his Master’s Degree in Film Scoring, Elkjaer moved to Los Angeles to study at the Thornton Screen Scoring Program at the University of Southern California (USC). Elkjaer is a Fulbright recipient, and received 12 scholarships from the Danish government while studying at USC. During his time at USC, Elkjaer won a mentorship with Michael Gorfaine, Partner and co-owner of the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, which continues to this day.


Since moving to LA, Elkjaer has worked on movies such as Gods Behaving Badly (2013) starring Sharon Stone and Christopher Walken, Bad Santa 2 (2016) with Billy Bob Thornton, and the Chinese epic block busters Monkey King (2014) and Monkey King 2 (2016), which involved working with an 80 piece orchestra and a 40 piece choir. Elkjaer’s TV credits include NBC TV series Midnight, Texas (2017-2018), Netflix TV series Lost In Space (2018-), and Dominion (2014-15).


The films Elkjaer scored showcase his vast range of expertise, and won awards at the Honolulu Film Festival, Nordic International Film Festival and First Run Film Festival in New York, Tech Doc Film Festival in Seattle, and Filmkraft in Denmark. In addition, several of Elkjaer's shorts won first place on Ekko shortlist, a top ten list that represents the best short movies in Denmark. Elkjaer’s work was selected twice for Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival in San Diego.


Elkjaer is a longtime collaborator of Golden Globe-nominated composer Christopher Young, Spiderman 3 (2007), and Hellraiser (1987), and was Christopher Young’s Lead Assistant, Soundtrack Suite Arranger, and Teaching Assistant at USC, for several years.


Elkjaer has done orchestrations and arrangements for several international concerts and ensembles, such as the Danish Royal Life Guards’ Marching Band, the charity concert Nordic Noir at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, and My Favorite Fears Concert in Tenerife, Spain. Elkjaer played guitar on the album Very Merry Rockin' Good Christmas (2018), by The Osmonds, and he had his concert music performed twice at the Barnsdall Theater in Hollywood.


Elkjaer’s latest theatrical feature film Forsvundet til Halloween (2021), produced by Danish production company Copenhagen Bombay is the very first Halloween movie produced in Denmark. Elkjaer's score for the movie has been shortlisted for a Robert Award nomination, a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Danish Film Academy. It is the Danish equivalent to the American Oscars, British BAFTAs for films, and Australian AACTA Awards. The award-voted only by acadmy members-is an acknowledgment by Danish industry colleagues of a person's film's outstanding contributions. The Danish Halloween movie is the first Danish feature to be availble for streaming on Disney+.