(Photo credit: Lars Skaaning)

Composer are music theorist Per Nørgård passed away on May 28, at the age of 92.

Nørgård was born on July 13, 1932, in Gentofte, a suburb of Copenhagen. He studied at Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and later in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. In 1958, he went on to teach at the Odense Conservatory, and then returned to the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in 1960. During this time he taught composers such as Hans Abrahamsen, Thomas Adès, and Britta Byström, among others.

Inspired by Carl Nielsen, Sibelius, and Vagn Holmboe’s ideas of metamorphoses and new serial techniques, Nørgård developed he developed his own fractal “infinity series.”  Nørgård composed nearly 400 works, including six operas, two ballets, eight symphonies, several scores for film and theatre, several concertos, choral and vocal works, chamber pieces, and many solo instrumental works. His opera “Gilgamesh” won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1974. At age 90, Nørgård recorded an album of improvisational pieces. 

Nørgård was also a music critic for the Danish newspaper “Politiken” and throughout his career he proved a prolific writer of musical analysis and musical philosophy. His writings are now digitally available at The Royal Danish Library.

The composer is survived by his two children.