b Oslo, 20 Jan 1960
Norwegian composer
Works for Brass Ensemble
- Hornflowers (2019) for brass quintet
Biography
Nils Henrik Asheim (b.1960), Norwegian composer and organist, is also active as a pianist and curator. He has written several chamber music pieces, works for symphony orchestra, organ and choir, as well as projects in public space and also using theatrical elements.
Asheim’s compositional style is characterized by a modernist attitude, often focused on sonic and tactile aspects. His music is usually built up of several parallel layers of time, where recurring material is varied, creating a form that seems open and self-generating.
Asheim has been acclaimed by critics for his personal style of improvisation on the organ. Since 2012 he has made his mark as the resident organist of the new concert hall in Stavanger. Here he has displayed an innovative way of programming activities around the organ, and managed to get a large audience for the instrument.
Asheim started out as a composition pupil of Olav Anton Thommessen and made his début at the UNM nordic festival for young composers in Helsinki at the early age of fifteen. In 1978 he was awarded the EBU Rostrum prize for his work Ensemblemusikk for 5. He subsequently went on to study organ and composing at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.
In 2018 Asheim was awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Music Prize for “Muohta – Language of Snow”. He is also a recipient of the Norwegian Music Critics’ Prize, the Norwegian Music Publishers’ Prize, the Arne Nordheim prize, the Edvard prize and the Lindeman prize, as well as twice the Spellemannspris (Norwegian “Grammy”). In 2018 Nils Henrik Asheim was made a Knight of the Royal Order of St.Olav.
from the composer’s website