Johan Svendsen

Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 184014 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most of his life in Copenhagen, Denmark. Svendsen’s output includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, a cello concerto, and the Romance for violin, as well as a number of Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra. At one time Svendsen was an intimate friend of the German composer Richard Wagner and Icelandic composer Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. Life Svendsen’s father was a music teacher and military bandmaster, who taught him both the violin and clarinet. He began playing in orchestras at age nine when he learned violin, and began composing by age eleven. At fifteen he enlisted in the military band at Akershus Fortress, playing clarinet, flute, trombone, and percussion among other instruments. By the time he finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a violinist. In Lübeck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible for him to study from 1863 to 1867 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Ferdinand David, but proble