Rønsholdt, Niels

Born in 1978, Danish composer, sound artist and performer. He studied with Karl Aage Rasmussen and Bent Sørensen at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, and with Helmut Oehring in Berlin. His works include experimental operas, installations, performances and concert music. Rønsholdt’s work is based on a kind of “methodical composing,” where conceptual constructs involve elements of performance, text, and music expression that often reference mainstream music or early musical forms. His works have been commissioned by many well-known contemporary music ensembles and have been performed at top European new music festivals, as well as in the USA, China, and Australia. He has notably received a Junge Akademie der Künste Berlin scholarship, a prestigious three-year grant from the Danish Arts Foundation, and an Augustinus Foundation Anniversary Grant. He is currently an associate professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. 

Selected works: Reach Out and Touch Me for mezzo-soprano / soprano, cello / viola da gamba, recorder and violin (2001), Drink Me, Make Me Real for alto saxophone, percussion and tape (2002), Inside Your Mouth, Sucking the Sun, chamber opera (2002–4), Lust, Melancholy, melodrama for voice, flute, cello and percussion (2005), Triumph for female voice, clarinet, double bass, percussion and electronics (2006), Hammerfall for piano, saxophone, and percussion, with optional lighting (2006), Room of Relation, interactive installation (with Signe Klejs, 2007), Die Wanderin for violin, piano, percussion, audio playback and optional video (2007), Unter den Liedern for strings, tape, lights and video (2007), Al-Aqsa, miniature for wind quartet (2008), The Merman for ensemble, live electronics and optional video (2008–13), Honeymoon, interactive opera installation for solo audience (with Signe Klejs, 2009), Gloomy Room, performance for percussionist, live video and audio playback (2009), Archeopteryx X, performance–ballet for two performers and ensemble with audio playback (2010), Fish & Fowl, album project (2010), Racer, concert–performance for string quartet, video and audio playback (with Signe Klejs, 2011), Skin, interactive installation (with Signe Klejs, 2012), Burningfor flute, violin, cello, piano and optional video (2012), Americana for amplified string quartet (2013), Word for Word, performance opera for soloist (2014), Fear and Loath in G Minor for amplified ensemble (2014), Me quitte, songs for female voice, male voice and ensemble (2013; version with orchestra, 2014), Rami cations, installation (2015), Songs of Doubt (Prospect / Retrospect), ten songs for voice solo, ondes Martenot, choir and video (2015), Shame for amplified instrumental quartet and voices (2016), Exile for voice(s) and piano (2016), Breathless Moment for voice, brass and choir (2016), Until Nothing Le for accordionist and objects (2017), Gaze for Gaze, performance opera (2017), Civilizations, “national Romantic symphony” for small orchestra, Greenlandic choir, narrator and tape (2017), X&X, performance for voice and piano (2017), Country, concerto for cello and chamber orchestra (2019), Archive of Emotions and Experiences, Book 1 for piano (2019), Las Incantadas for chamber ensemble (2019).