Karl Steven

Karl Sölve Steven (Aotearoa-NZ/Sweden) is a composer/producer working primarily with screen composition and various collaborative projects.  His music sits somewhere between experimental orchestral and experimental electronic, but is steeped in popular forms, placing it at the intersection of acoustic and synthetic, tradition and iconoclasm, and so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural concerns.

His screen work has won him multiple awards, with his films premiering at the likes of Sundance, BFI London International Film Festival, Tribeca, and TIFF, and episodic work screening on BBC One, Apple TV, StudioCanal, PBS, Viaplay, and Netflix.  In 2024 he was invited to attend the Cannes Film Festival by the Marché Du Film as part of their prestigious ‘Spot The Composer’ program.  He has been lucky to record with a wide array of wonderful musicians, including Sinfonia Nord and Júlía Mogensen in Iceland, the Stroma Ensemble in Wellington, and Molly Lewis in Los Angeles.  In 2025 he worked with artists Loraine James, Puce Mary, and Kelman Duran as part of a residency in which they created hybrid orchestral works for performance with Sinfonietta Cracovia at Unsound Festival in Krakow. 

He has a PhD in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy from Trinity College Cambridge and is an inductee of Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa, The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.