Karin Hammar …

… was born 1974 in the northern town Boden in Sweden. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Stockholm between 1994-1999 and she has freelanced as full time musician since 1997.

She has worked with most of the professional big bands in Sweden, but also with the European EBU Big Band. She has also played with internationally acclaimed Jazz Baltica Ensemble (with top musicians from northern Europe), most of the German radio big bands  (WDR -West Deutsche Rundfunk, SWR Big Band, and HR Big Band) and Norwegian Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.

Karin has toured and recorded with international jazz stars as Kenny Werner, Carla Bley, Tim Hagans, Steve Swallow, Gary Burton, Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, Dick oatts, Ivan Lins and Nils Landgren.

Karin is also a frequent soloist in smaller and bigger ensembles and has toured in China, Thailand, Holland, Norway, Japan, UK, France, Italy, Kosovo, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, South Africa, Russia, the US, Canada, Turkey, the Baltic countries, Austria, Brazil, Malaysia, Borneo, Israel, The Philippines, Italy, Greece and Czech Republic. After releasing 2 CD´s at the German label Skip Records (2009 and 2013), she also frequently tours Germany.

Karin Hammar has released 6 internationally acclaimed CD´s in her own name (5 on Swedish labels, and 2 on German Skip Records) and 4 CDs together with her sister Mimmi Hammar with their group Sliding Hammers (active between 1997-2011). With The Sliding Hammers, she has played at the legendary jazz club Birdland in NYC, and also toured Japan twice.

Karin Hammar has received numerous prestigious Swedish jazz awards, for example:

- Alice Bab´s Award 2004 (as the first recipient ever).

- an award from The Swedish Society of composers Popular Music in 2009.

• the Price from the Swedish Jazz Society 2017 due to being  ”a fantastic ambassador for the trombone as an instrument and also for Swedish jazz, because of her fearless attitude towards new musical projects as bandleader, composer and soloist in different musical environments.”

• 2020, Karin Hammar received the JazzBrass-Award of 100 000 SEK (10 000 €) for ”combining great musicality and high level of instrumental knowledge”.

Karin´s compositions has been streamed over 10 000 000 times on Spotify.

Hammar is also appearing on a lot of Swedish and foreign jazz and pop releases as a side woman.

• Karin´s release ”Opening” (Prophone/Naxos 2023) was nominated for the Swedish music award ”Manifest” in the category ”Best Jazz”  2024.

• 2023, Karin was honored to perform Quincy Jones` “the midnight sun never sets” at the nobel prize ceremony in front of the nobel prize laureates, swedish king and queen and the swedish government. the performance was live broadcasted over the world.