Nationality: Norwegian

GJEILO, Ola

Photo by Lillian Andersen

Born in Skui, Norway, May 5, 1978

[OH-la YAY-lo]

Ola Gjeilo is an improvisatory pianist and composer of primarily choral music.
After studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, Gjeilo earned his master’s degree in composition from the Juilliard School. He also spent a year studying film music at USC.
- Gjeilo has remained a resident of the US since his time studying at Juilliard and currently resides in NYC.
Gjeilo’s musical style is described as “cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound.” When he composes, Gjeilo rarely draws inspiration from external sources, instead allowing the “blank canvas” of a new piece to reveal itself.¹

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Composer’s website

Edvard Grieg, photographed in 1888.

Born in Bergen, June 15, 1843
Died in Bergen, Sept 4, 1907

Cool fact: Grieg’s mother, Gesine Judith Hagerup, was a professional pianist and his first piano teacher.¹

Born in Drammen, March 15, 1864
Died in Oslo, Dec 4, 1935

In addition to composing, Halvorsen was a violin virtuoso, taught violin at the Helsinki Music Institute, and was one of Norway’s most prominent conductors.
Halvorsen was friends with Edvard Grieg, who was a generation older.
Style: Halvorsen was influenced by Norwegian composers like Grieg, but his orchestration shows the influence of French Romantic composers.²

Born in Christiania [now Oslo], Sept 21, 1882
Died in Honolulu, Aug 12, 1972³

Born in Christiania [now Oslo], April 15, 1868
Died in Oslo, April 6, 1950

Lund was a Norwegian composer who studied music in Christiana, Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris.⁴
Lund was encouraged by Edvard Grieg early in her career.⁵
Around 1901, the London Times described Lund as “The most interesting composer of the younger Scandinavian school.”⁶
- I found that quotation in a 1901 profile in the English magazine The Sketch, which also discussed her mentorship from Edvard Grieg, called her “the latest Parisian beauty,” and detailed her love of creating soup recipes. All in all, an interesting example of turn-of-the-century attitudes toward women composers.
Lund taught in Norway and the United States; she was based in Chicago from 1902-1920, and in addition to composing, she lectured frequently on Norwegian topics.⁷
Lund helped found the Norwegian Composers Association in 1917.⁸
Lund was outspoken about her political opinions, and her support for Adolf Hitler and the Norwegian Nazi party more or less destroyed her reputation in the United States by the 1940s. (In 1943 she wrote a string quartet celebrating the 10^th anniversity of the Norwegian Nazi party.)³⁸

Born in Christiania [now Oslo], Sept 30, 1840
Died in Copenhagen, June 14, 1911

Svendsen was a Norwegian violinist, conductor and composer. He started his career as a boy, playing violin in dance orchestras, and later in the orchestra of the Norwegian Theater.
In 1863 Svendsen was received a government stipend to study at the Leipzig Conservatory.
Svendsen pursued a career as an orchestral conductor in Leipzig before returning to Norway n 1872 to join Edvard Grieg as joint conductor of the Music Society Concerts in Christiania.¹¹⁵