Fred Lonberg-Holm

American cellist based in Chicago (born 1962)

Fred Lonberg Holm (born 1 October 1962) is an American cellist based in Chicago. He moved from New York City to Chicago in 1995. Lonberg Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free jazz. He is also a composer of concert works. As a session musician and arranger, he is credited on rock, pop, and country records.

Lonberg Holm has led Valentine Trio, with Jason Roebke (bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums). This jazz trio performs original compositions as well as tunes by both jazz composers (e. g. Sun Ra) and pop songwriters (e. g. Jeff Tweedy, Syd Barrett). The group released its first album, Terminal Valentine, in 2007, which was reviewed by AllAboutJazz critic Nils Jacobson. He has directed performances of his Lightbox Orchestra, an improvising ensemble with a flexible, ever changing membership. Lonberg Holm does not play an instrument in this group but rather conducts its non idiomatic improvisations via the "lightbox" and by holding up handwritten signs. The lightbox contains a light bulb for each musician which Lonberg Holm switches on or off to suggest when they should play.

Lonberg Holm was a member of Terminal 4, which released an album in 2003 called When I'm Falling that received four and a half stars by Allmusic, The Boxhead' Ensemble, Pillow, the Lonberg Holm/Kessler/Zerang trio (with Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang), and the Dörner/Lonberg Holm duo (with Axel Dörner). He has been a member of the Vandermark 5 and Vandermark's Territory Band, the Joe McPhee Trio, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, and Keefe Jackson's Fast Citizens. When he lived in New York, Lonberg Holm collaborated with the rock group God Is My Co Pilot pianist and composer Anthony Coleman as well as multi instrumentalist Paul Duncan of Warm Ghost. In Chicago, he worked with Jim O'Rourke, Bobby Conn, The Flying Luttenbachers, Lake of Dracula, Wilco, Rivulets, Mats Gustafsson, Sten Sandell, Jaap Blonk, and John Butcher.

Lonberg Holm's concert works have been premiered by William Winant, Carrie Biolo, the Austin New Music Co Op, Subtropics Ensemble, Duo Atypica, the Schanzer/ Duo, New Winds, Paul Hoskin, Kevin Norton, the E. S. P. Ensemble, and others. His scores for dance have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Dance Theater Workshop as well as many other venues. He is a former composition student of Anthony Braxton and Morton Feldman. He performed improvised music in the role of a troubled composer who finds inspiration in the love of a couple he spots on the street in a short film for the Playboy channel.