Anders Nordentoft

The Danish composer Anders Nordentoft grew up in Nykøbing Mors, Denmark. He studied composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where his teachers were Hans Abrahamsen and Ib Nørholm. Further composition studies were with Per Nørgård at the Academy of Music in Aarhus. Additionally, he has a violin diploma from the Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Anders Nordentoft’s starting-point was direct, energetic music with a strong focus on rhythm. His breakthrough came with the orchestral work Entgegen (1985) which featured juxtaposing oppositional musical elements. Throughout the 1990s he developed a more lyrical, melodic style, through which he sought out a more harmonious middle-ground that, in the composer’s own words; "explores the moderate but also expressive and infinitely faceted universe of friendship”. This aesthetic is evident in works such as The City of Threads (1994), Hymne (1996) and the cello concerto Light Imprisoned (1996). Nordentoft received the Carl Nielsen Prize in 1997 and the Edition Wilhelm Hansen Composer’s Prize in 2002. His work list comprises more than 50 titles, five of them orchestral works and seven works for large ensemble/sinfonietta. He has also written for choir and for soloists in a variety of contexts.