Hans Abrahamsen

Hans Abrahamsen (born 23 December 1952) is a Danish composer born in Kongens Lyngby near Copenhagen. His Let me tell you (2013), a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, was ranked by music critics at The Guardian as the finest work of the 21st-century. His opera The Snow Queen was commissioned and premiered by the Royal Danish Theatre in 2019. Biography Early life His interest in composition and piano began after hearing his father playing piano. His first attempts at “little melodies” were designed to be played with the only two fingers on his right hand that were capable of playing the instrument. After realizing that he would not be able to progress, he shifted his focus to the French horn. From 1969 to 1971, he studied horn, music theory, and music history at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. While at the conservatory, his music was inspired by his mentors Per Nørgård and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. In the 1980s, he continued his studies attending seminars with György Ligeti. Early career Abrahamsen is considered to have been part of a trend called the “New Simplicity”, which arose in the mid-1960s as a reaction against the complexity and perceived aridity of the