Mats Holmquist is a composer/arranger/big band leader/author/lecturer of Swedish origin. As a leader/director he has composed and arranged music for seven albums. He has performed with his own groups and big band, ”Mats Holmquist Stora Stygga” (Big Bad Band) at international jazz festivals like Montreux, The Hague, and San Sebastian In 2012 he toured with legendary saxophonist Dave Liebman and Stora Stygga around Sweden. In 2014, with the Dave Liebman Big Band, he recorded the CD ”A Tribute to Wayne Shorter”. In 2015 he recorded “A Tribute to Herbie +1” with his new big band: the Dick Oatts/Mats Holmquist New York Jazz Orchestra, featuring Dick Oatts and many members of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. In 2010 he premiered his “Big Band Minimalism”, a sub-genre described as a fusion between his own modern big band music style and the minimalism of Steve Reich and John Adams. The CD ”Big Band Minimalism” was recorded in October 2015 by the Latvian Radio Big Band. In 2018, he collaborated with Randy Brecker and the Umo Jazz Orchestra (Finland), on the album Together.