Per Nørgård

Per Nørgård (1932–2025) was a Danish composer and theorist, widely regarded as the most important Danish composer since Carl Nielsen. Born in Gentofte, near Copenhagen, he began studying privately with Vagn Holmboe at seventeen, then at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His early music continued the Nordic tradition of Sibelius and Nielsen. In 1959 he discovered his ‘infinity series’, a self-similar melodic principle that shaped works such as Voyage into the Golden Screen (1968) and the choral Third Symphony (1972–75). Around 1980 his style changed sharply under the influence of the Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli. He wrote eight symphonies, operas including Gilgamesh, concertos, chamber and choral music, and taught for three decades at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. He received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2016.