Born in 1976, he is a Berlin-based composer, performer and installation artist, working in the field between instrumental music, electronics, video, and performance within settings ranging from symphony orchestra and chamber music (with and without multimedia) to stagings, solo performances and installations. His latest works concentrate on integrating concrete elements and emphasizing the physical and choreographic aspects of instrumental performance. His works often include amplified acoustic instruments in combination with sampler, video, simple everyday objects, or homemade constructions.
He studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde and Bent Sørensen in Aarhus, Freiburg im Breisgau, Buenos Aires and Copenhagen (1998–2006). Since 2008 he has been lecturer of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, in 2013–14 he was visiting professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and in 2014, lecturer at the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt.
Simon Steen-Andersen received numerous prizes and grants, including the Nordic Council Music Prize and the SWR Orchestra Prize (2014), Carl Nielsen Prize, Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Künste in Berlin (2013), International Rostrum of Composers, DAAD residency (2010), and the Kranichsteiner Music Award (2008). Works commissioned by ensembles, orchestras and festivals such as ensemble recherche, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, SWR Orchestra, Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Ascolta, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, 2e2m, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ultraschall, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, and Eclat. Furthermore worked with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zurich, ICTUS, Arditti, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble intercontemporain, asamisimasa, and NADAR.
Major works (since 2005): Amongst, concerto for extremely amplified guitar and large orchestra (2005), Within Amongst, anticadenza for amplified guitar solo (2005), [sproglyd], interactive website for Norwegian and Danish words and phonemes with string quartet (2005), loloopop, audiovisual installation (with Carl Krull, 2006), Chambered Music for 12 instruments and sampler (2007), In Spite Of, And Maybe Even Therefore for three amplified and four unamplified instruments (2007), Difficulties Putting It Into Practice (Prior In Her Frown) for two amplified performers (2007, rev. 2010), Nothing Integrated for extremely amplified clarinet, percussion, cello and live video (2007), soundTAG, epidemic sound installation (with Kaj Aune, 2008), On And Off And To And Fro for vibraphone, saxophone/ clarinet, double bass/cello and three players with megaphones (2008), Beloved Brother, two movements from J. S. Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of His Dearly Beloved Brother arranged for backside guitar (2008), Pretty Sound (Up And Down) for amplified piano (2008), Self Simulator, interactive installation (2009), Run Time Error, video installation/performance (2009–), Ouvertures for amplified guzheng, sampler and orchestra (2008–10), Double Up for sampler and small orchestra (2010), Study for String Instrument nos. 1–3 (2007–11), History of My Instrument for prepared harp and video (2011), Im Rauschen, for piccolo, flute and bass clarinet with intrainstrumental playback (2012), String Quartet no. 2 for strings with prepared and amplified bows (2012), Black Box Music for percussion solo, amplified box, 15 players and video (2012), Inszenierte Nacht, stagings of pieces by Bach, Schumann, Mozart and Ravel in cooperation with Ensemble Ascolta (2013), Mono (Autotune and Nachgesang) for male voice, keyboard and electronics (2014), Piano Concerto for piano, sampler, orchestra and video (2014), Buenos Aires, music theatre in five scenes for five singers and four musicians (2014), Korpus for three Harry Partch-instruments and 7–8 players (2015).
