karsten fundal
composer
Karsten Fundal has studied composition with Hans Abrahamsen and Ib Nørholm, Karl Aage Rasmussen and Per Nørgård. A meeting with Nigel Osborne and (especially) Morton Feldman in 1986 at Dartington took on great importance for Fundal's development as a composer, and in the years 1987-88 he studied composition with Louis Andriessen in Holland. Among the most important of his other works we find the violin concerto "Floating Lines – Broken Mirrors" (1995-1996), the percussion concerto "Ritornello al Contrario" (1996-1997) and the ensemble work written for the Cikada Ensemble, "Circadian Pulse" (2002-2003). Then there are the four works in the Moebius series and of course the orchestral works "Entropia" (1997-2001) for soloists, choir and large orchestra - written for the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR - and the orchestral work "Hush" (2003-2004). In recent years Karsten Fundal has had the pleasure of seeing a rapidly increasing interest in his music, which has led to a large number of commissions for new works, and has gradually won him a place as one of the major composers of his generation. Fundal's unmistakable talent has also evoked a response in the film world where, after great success with the music for the Dreyer film "Mikaël" (2003), premiered live with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, he wrote the music for Nikolaj Østergaard's Robert-award-winning documentary "Om Tro" (Short Film About Faith) (Nordisk Film 2005). Most recently Fundal has completed the work on the music for the epic film "Flammen & Citronen" ("The Flame and the Citron") directed by Ole Christian Madsen (Nimbus Film 2008). It is an impressive and wide-ranging score for the most expensive movie ever produced in Denmark. Karsten Fundal has been awarded the Wilhelm Hansen Composer's Prize 1994, the Prize of the Danish Composers' Society 1995, the Hvass Foundation's Artist's Grant 1995, the Queen Ingrid Memorial Grant 2005 and the Carl Nielsen Prize 2005. In 2005 he received the three-year grant of the Danish National Arts Foundation to develop a major music film project about globalization. For the music for Peter Schønau Fog's feature film "Kunsten At Græde i Kor" (2007) ("The Art of Crying") Fundal won a Robert for best score and has thus won a place as the most important composer in Danish film for many years. © Karsten Fundal 2008 Webmaster | With permission from KODA