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Hjalmar Borgstrøm

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hjalmar Borgstrøm (; 23 March 1864 – 5 July 1925) was a Norwegian composer and music critic who played a prominent role in the musical life of his country in the first quarter of the 20th century. Biography Borgstrøm was born Hjalmar Jensen on 23 March 1864 in Christiania (now Oslo). His father, Carl Christian Jensen, was a civil servant and the family were keen amateur musicians. Borgstrøm showed an early aptitude for music and by the age of fifteen was a talented violinist. After studying composition and music theory in Oslo with Johan Svendsen and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, he went to the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany for two years. On his return to Norway in 1889, he worked as a music critic for several newspapers and successfully premiered his cantata, Hvæm er du med de tusene navne (Who are you with a thousand names). However, in 1890, he left Norway and was to live for the next thirteen years in Leipzig and Berlin, where he became a friend of the Italian composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni whose musical philosophy he shared. Borgstrøm returned to Norway in 1903, the year in which his symphonic poem for piano and orchestra, Hamlet, premiered to great acclaim in Oslo. The so

Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hjálmar Helgi Ragnarsson (23 September 1952 – 13 March 2026) was an Icelandic composer, music theorist, and rector. He is considered among the leading Icelandic composers of his generation, Life and career Hjálmar was born in Ísafjörður in northwestern Iceland on 23 September 1952, the son of Ragnar H. Ragnar, dean of the local music school, and Sigríður Jónsdóttir. He began piano studies with his father at age six and later continued his studies at the Reykjavík College and the Reykjavík School of Music. He completed his BA degree from Brandeis University in 1974, and studied electronic music at the Institute of Sonology (Utrecht University) in 1976–1977. In 1980, he completed an MFA degree in composition and music theory from Cornell University. Following his return to Iceland, Hjálmar was an active composer and teacher. He was a teacher at the Reykjavík College of Music from 1980 to 1988, and was the first Rector of the Iceland University of the Arts, serving for three terms (1998–2013). He was Chairman of the Icelandic Society of Composers (1988–1992), and President of the Federation of Icelandic Artists (Bandalag íslenskra listamanna) from 1991 to 1998. He received various hon