Per Nørgård
(c) Tine Harden
Wise Music and Edition Wilhelm Hansen announced the death of renowned Danish composer Per Nørgård. Nørgård died peacefully on May 28, 2025, aged 92. He was born on July 13, 1932.
They say: « Per Nørgård was a musical icon and a giant in both Danish and international music life, with a career spanning more than 70 years. Perhaps the most prominent Danish composer since Carl Nielsen, Per Nørgård’s musical output included works in every genre including eight symphonies, six operas, solo concertos, choral music, a wide array of chamber pieces, as well as several scores for film and theatre – totalling almost 400 works. »
Nørgård began private studies with Danish composer Vagn Holmboe before joining the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen to study with Holmboe, Finn Høffding and Herman D. Koppel from 1952 to 1955. After graduating, he undertook lessons with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1956-57). Aged just 22, Per Nørgård signed with the publisher Edition Wilhelm Hansen and began a partnership that would last until the end of his life.
From the 1950s he worked within the Nordic tradition from Carl Nielsen and especially Sibelius, with whom he had some correspondence. In the 1960s, influenced by Vagn Holmboe’s ideas of metamorphoses and new serial techniques, he developed he developed his own fractal ‘infinity series’.
As a teacher in composition, he significantly influenced generations of composers, first at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and then, from 1965, at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.
Among Per Nørgård’s many significant works his symphonies stand as monuments in Danish music, among these is his Symphony No. 3 (1972), which was selected as part of the ‘Danish Cultural Canon’ in 2005. Other works of note include the trio Spell (1973) the choral work Wie ein Kind (1980), I Ching (1982) for percussion solo, and his violin concerto Helle Nacht (1987), the opera Nuit des Hommes (1996) and the orchestral piece Terrains Vagues (2000).
He received a large number of honorary awards for his musical achievements, including the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in 1996, the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1974, The Sibelius Prize in 2006, The Marie-Josée Kravis Music Prize in 2014, the Wilhelm Hansen Foundation’s Honorary Grant in 2006 and the Siemens Music Prize in 2016.
