Håkon Stene studied percussion and chamber music in Oslo, Freiburg and San Diego.  He was chosen by state run Concerts Norway for the INTRO for young soloists programme between 2005 and 2008.  He has appeared as a soloist world wide with musicians including the London Sinfonietta, 2e2m, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, asamisimasa (contemporary), the Pantha Du Prince & Conference of Trees Techno band, the Rolf Lislevand baroque ensemble, Nils Økland Band for improvisation and Folk Formation and the Ensemble Modern. He was awarded the Spellemann Prize for chamber music soloists five times and the Norwegian equivalent to a Grammy. Håkon Stene works with composers of all ages and styles.  Experimental music and further developing the traditional role of an instrumentalist are important to him, latching on to all sorts of compositions, free improvisation and  »non academic« electronic music. He investigated this further in projects including »This is Not a Drum« – Towards a Post-Instrumental Practice and, from 2010 - 2017, his post-doc-project Music with the Real at the Norwegian Music Academy. He became a professor for percussion at the University for Music in Freiburg im Breisgau in 2017. There have been many, prize winning, recordings, including the album Lush Laments for Lazy Mammal (music by Laurence Crane, and others), Neon Forest by Øyvind Torvund with asamisimasa and Black Box Music by Simon Steen-Andersen with the Oslo Sinfonietta.