Biography
I was born in 1964 in Kristiansund, a city on the western coast of Norway, built on a cluster of islands, where four of them are inhabited, with a total population of around 25 000. They have been inhabited since 8000 B.C.
I attended the city music school playing the viola and piano from 1972 to 1980. At the high school from 1980 to 83, I followed the music program. I played the viola in the semi-professional Kristiansund Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 83 and in different chamber ensembles during those years.
In 1983, they accepted me as a student in composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music under Professor Lasse Thoresen and viola under Assistant Professor Otto Berg where I studied until 1988. From 1991 to 1993 I continued to study composition under Professor Dr. h.c Witold Szalonek in his composition class at the Hochschule (now Universität) der Künste Berlin. They accepted me for a Master’s (MA) in applied music theory at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2011, but I couldn’t continue because of severe illness.
Since 1994 I’ve dedicated my life to full time composing. Before that, I’ve worked in a youth club, as a teacher in music schools in Oslo, Bærum, and Bergen, as a music copyist and engraver, and as a freelance sound engineer at the Henie-Onstad Art Center, amongst others.
I’ve received many scholarships and was granted a two-year full-time scholarship from the Norwegian Ministry for Cultural Affairs in 2006. I’ve also had a two-year full-time scholarship from The Norwegian Composers Fund. In 2022 the Fegersten foundation scholarship.
I was accepted as a member of the Norwegian Composers Society in 1991 and NOPA (society for composers and authors of popular music) in 2017. A member of Kunstnerforeningen (the artist’s society established in 1848) since 2017.
I was a member of the Music Expert Committee in the Norwegian Society of Composers May 2014 until May 2017. From May 2017 to May 2019 in the election committee. June 2020 to June 22 elected member of the advising committee for scholarships from the Arts Council Norway.
I’ve lived at a total of 11 years in Germany. Two of them in Berlin and nine in Lübeck.
Signed by Norsk musikkforlag AS as in-house composer in September 2022
Esthetic and ethic position
I often use my aphorism I’ve got a lot to tell, but nothing to say. But I’m convinced there is something more to life than the mainstream (philosophical) materialism and «new age» well-being spirituality. We build the foundation of Europe on Judea-Christian humanism. I think there is a possibility to use science to describe reality and humanities to explain reality.
Music is for me about memory, melancholy, and meaning. My music is highly emotional, but that doesn’t exclude the fact that I build it on a high degree of formalized determinate thinking; not on improvisation. I use what I can describe as idiomatic pluralistic composition techniques. But it’s not a post-modern collage dilettantism, where it’s justified to think it allows everything because there is no truth in a metaphysical sense.
I was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Father Ragnar Leer Salvesen in Oslo on July 18, 2021. On Januar 12, 2024 accepted as a member of the laity within the catholic Order of Preachers [Ordo Preadicatorum] known as the Dominican Order, founded in 1216 by St. Dominic de Guzman.
I’m very aware that I cannot separate my esthetically position from my ethical view. True art derives from necessity and not just from wanting (Luca Lombardi).
Music Cooperations:
Some of the people whom I have been working with are: Frans Helmersson, Rolf Petrich, Jan Stigmer, Ivar Tindberg, Madelene Berg, Hartmut Schulz, Mauro Tortorelli, Angela Meluso, Anders Vinjar, Morten Cranner, Kari Elise Slinning, Rolf Gupta, Malin Kjelsrud, Bjørn Sagstad, Lars-Erik ter Jung, Sérgio Carolino, Trygve-Johan Simonsen, Tirill Mohn, Finn Coren, Ari Raisilainen, Andreas Peer Kähler, Brjánn Ingasson, Elisabet Ljungar, Marianne E Andersen, Ludvig Lindstrøm, Andreas Lundmark, Ole Martin Huser-Olsen, Erik Aldenheim-Nerheim, Thore Engen, Andreas Röhrig (a.k.a Alan Jay Reed), Peder A. Rensvik, Michael Antrobus, Camilla Hoitenga, Jenny Q Chai, Elise Båtnes, Ole Martin Huser-Olsen, Elisne Haugstad, Alessandro Cazatto, Carmine Consetta Rizzi, Laura Pietrocini, Marco Fiorentini, Valerio Vicari (Roma Tre Orchestra), Lidia Dottore, Lorenzo Rundo, David Simonacci, Marco Simonacci, Fabiola Gaudio, Jacob Beranek Hvattum, Live Berger Brekke, Nora Dahlberg, Eunice Cangianiello, Dr. Michael El Khouri, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo String Quartet, Bjørn Sagstad, Jessica Wagner, Collin Malloy, Stefan Ibsen Zlatanos, Mads Wighus, Niels Kristian Persen,
Festivals:
Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Autunnale (Bergen/Norway), Brass Wind (Bergen/Norway), Musica Nova (Sofia), Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Emkendorff/Germany), Sächsisch Böhmische Music Festival (Leipzig/Germany), Nordic Music Days (Reykjavik/Iceland and Turku/Finnland), Equinox (Cologne) – four times, Ny Musikk (IGNM-Norway) Mini Festival at Aker Brygge, Oslo, 100 Bars for Cage/Oslo,
Other concert venues:
Mikkeli/Finnland, Kristiansund (North)/Norway, Porto/Portugal, Lübeck/Germany, Gelbensande/Germany, Oslo/Norway, Kristiansand (South)/Norway, Bodø/Norway, St.Petersburg/Russia, Victoria/Canada,
Other artists:
Yngve Næsheim, Kristin Rasmussen, Terje Winther, Malin Kjelsrud, Tulla Elieson, Thomas Wiederberg, Nico Wiederberg,
Some words on illness
It has handicapped me since birth because of an infection that destroyed my left hip. Because of that, I’ve been in and out of hospitals regularly since then and have undergone a lot of surgery and other orthopedic treatments. My sense of humor and a highly developed fantasy and extensive inner life have been crucial.
Writing music is for me a necessity, so I continue to compose within the tight boundaries of my illnesses. And I am very privileged working with musicians, conductors and have a publisher that believes in my work through performances and commissions. And that there is an audience that appreciates what I do!
My wife has written in the text about me, which I find very describing.