Niels Rønsholdt

Danish Composer

Niels Rønsholdt was born 1978 and educated in Aarhus, and in recent years has been the driving force and linchpin behind many innovative ventures in the city of and on the Danish new music scene generally.

In 2009, Rønsholdt was awarded the three-year working scholarship of the Danish Arts Foundation's Committee for Classical Music for his distinctive compositional work.

The committee made the following remarks in connection with the award:

"With an insistence on aesthetic and technical precision, Rønsholdt has been whittling consistently and mercilessly for many years upon the genres of instrumental music, chamber opera and installation, often in co-operation with the media artist Signe Klejs. With works such as 'Triumph' (2007) and 'Honeymoon' (2009), Rønsholdt and Klejs have created new electronic music formats in which Rønsholdt's musical stringency has been maintained in a media platform that presents and develops the thematic work on all levels. Rønsholdt's music is characterised by an extreme tenderness that entices the listener to enter difficult universes, where the aesthetics and composition are so powerful that you can feel the door slam shut behind you."

Niels Rønsholdt's period as composer in residence with the Jutland Ensemble in the years 2007-2009 will conclude in 2009 with the premier performance of a major production, created in collaboration between the composer, the ensemble and the dance company Dansescenen.