Cast and crew of Langgaard Festival 2024
On this page you can see all the performers at Langgaard Festival 2024.
Lotte Andersen
Lotte Andersen, actress, began her theater career in 1984 at Dr. Dante and was associated with Aveny Teatret until 2002, where she was one of the main forces behind Teaterkoncert-Gasolin with director Nikolaj Cederholm.
She has performed on stages such as Østre Gasværk, Betty Nansen, the Opera and Barbican Theatre.
In 2011, she was nominated for a Reumert for best leading actress in Lykkebjørn.
With her production company SONGBIRDS she has created productions such as RADIUM and Carl & Marie.
Nattevagten (1994) and has had roles in both film and TV in series such as Forbrydelsen, Rita, and Bedrag. She was the screenwriter of Oh Happy Day (2004) and author of the epistolary novel Carl and Marie in 2018.
Signe Asmussen
Signe Asmussen, soprano, is a recurring soloist with all the country’s orchestras, and her great interest in chamber music and new compositional music has led to countless CD recordings and continuous, close collaboration with the country’s chamber ensembles:
- Esbjerg Ensemble
- Ensemble Storstrøm
- Athelas Sinfonietta
- Figura
- Stage set
- Theater of Voices
Together with these ensembles, she has premiered several new works and music drama productions.
With repeated engagements at both the Royal Danish Theatre and the Danish National Opera and as a permanent member of Guido Paevatalu’s chamber opera company “GuidOpera” and Carol Conrad and Thomas Koppel’s “Operettekompagniet”, she has an extensive touring activity around all the country’s music houses and theaters.
Karen Bendix
Karen Bendix holds an MA in Music and Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen.
in Music and Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen.
Since then, she has worked with the dissemination, marketing and communication of music, among other things:
- DR P2
- Universal Music
- Danish Musicians' Union
- Mission East
She now works as a secretariat manager in KORLIV – the choir organization of the People’s Church.
Bente Bramming
Bente Bramming is a trained theologian and holds a PhD from the Department of History, Culture and Society.
She has worked as an inspector at Ribe Art Museum from 2010-2016 and then as a pastor at Glejbjerg Church.
Bente is the author of the books Længsel-Lundbye and Kierkegaard og Brorson-sjælensjælens digter.
Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen
Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen is a Danish-American saxophonist, vocalist and composer.
She has formed a saxophone quartet with Tamio Shiraishi, Matt Nelson and Chris Pitsiokos, and is the leader and composer for Danish impro-no-wave band Sweet Banditry and duo The Home of Easy Credit.
Louise has toured the US, Europe and Japan and runs the record label Marsken Records with her husband Tom Blancarte.
In addition to being a performing artist, she teaches at e.g.
Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen.
Thomas Dausgaard
Thomas Dausgaard was most recently Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2016-2022) and holds titles such as Honorary Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Chief Conductor 1997-2019) and Orchestra della Toscana.
He was also Music Director of the Seattle Symphony (2019-2022) and Honorary Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, where he was Chief Conductor from 2004 to 2011 as the first ever Dane.
Dausgaard has collaborated with many of the world’s leading orchestras and performed at prestigious festivals, as well as touring Europe and the USA and Japan.
Dausgaards also explores symphonic music in his programs by combining it with other styles such as Carl Nielsen with folk musicians, Mahler with klezmer music, Debussy with gamelan ensemble and Rachmaninoff with Orthodox choir.
He has also worked on projects with a youth orchestra in the favelas of Sao Paulo and conducted conducting masterclasses from Spain to Beijing.
During the Covid lockdown, he launched the YouTube channel “Thomas’ Music Room” where he introduces music to children and young minds.
The Young Vocal Ensemble (DUVE)
The Young Vocal Ensemble (DUVE) is a community of young singers who are passionate about producing vocal music at a high artistic level.
Members are recruited from the musical education community in Copenhagen.
Conductor Poul Emborg has a background as both a concert singer in the DR Vocal Ensemble and conductor.
Flemming Dreisig
Flemming Dreisig, organ, graduated from Det Kgl.
Danish Academy of Music at the age of 19.
He became Denmark’s youngest cathedral organist ever when he became cathedral organist in Maribo Cathedral at the age of 21.
Since then he has held organ duties in e.g.
St. Nikolai in Rønne and Helligåndskirken in Copenhagen.
Flemming Dreisig studied the French organ tradition in Paris and taught at the Copenhagen Conservatory of Music from 1973 to 1988, the last five years as professor.
He has played countless church concerts, also abroad, and has pioneered the recording of some of Rued Langgaard’s late Romantic organ works.
DR Vocal Ensemble
DR Vokalensemblet is DR’s small choir and consists of 18 professional singers.
The ensemble debuted in January 2007 and until 2012 had Stephen Layton as special guest conductor.
Since 2023, Martina Batič has been the DR Vocal Ensemble’s new principal conductor.
She is internationally recognized for her skills as a choral conductor and is passionate about expanding our view of choral music.
The choir has a broad repertoire, with an increasing focus on Baroque and contemporary music.
Choir members are typically also soloists, and some have significant solo work alongside their ensemble work.
Birgitte Ebert
Birgitte Ebert, organist, trained in Copenhagen, Lübeck and Paris with her debut concert at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1990.
She was organist at Hellerup Church from 1990-1999 until she became cathedral organist in Ribe in 2000.
She is active as an organ soloist and chamber musician at home and abroad and has been a soloist with the Danish Radio and South Jutland Symphony Orchestra.
Birgitte Ebert is co-founder and treasurer of the Rued Langgaard Society and coordinator of the annual Rued Langgaard Festival.
She has also co-edited four volumes of organ works under the Rued Langgaard Edition.
DR Vocal Ensemble
DR Vokalensemblet is DR’s small choir and consists of 18 professional singers.
The ensemble debuted in January 2007 and until 2012 had Stephen Layton as special guest conductor.
Since 2023, Martina Batič has been the DR Vocal Ensemble’s new principal conductor.
She is internationally recognized for her skills as a choral conductor and is passionate about expanding our view of choral music.
The choir has a broad repertoire, with an increasing focus on Baroque and contemporary music.
Choir members are typically also soloists, and some have significant solo work alongside their ensemble work.
Birgitte Ebert
Birgitte Ebert, organist, trained in Copenhagen, Lübeck and Paris with her debut concert at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1990.
She was organist at Hellerup Church from 1990-1999 until she became cathedral organist in Ribe in 2000.
She is active as an organ soloist and chamber musician at home and abroad and has been a soloist with the Danish Radio and South Jutland Symphony Orchestra.
Birgitte Ebert is co-founder and treasurer of the Rued Langgaard Society and coordinator of the annual Rued Langgaard Festival.
She has also co-edited four volumes of organ works under the Rued Langgaard Edition.
Maria Østerby Elleby
Maria Østerby Elleby is museum and communication curator at Museum VEST, History and Communication Unit.
She holds a PhD with the dissertation ‘The late witchcraft trials: Witchcraft in the Danish Supreme Court, 1664-1741’.
Maria was a key part of the working group behind HEX!
Museum ofWitch Hunt in Ribe.
Esbjerg Ensemble
Esbjerg Ensemble was established in 1967 as the first professional chamber ensemble in Denmark.
The ensemble now consists of 10 musicians from all over the world, divided into string quartet, wind quintet and percussion.
The ensemble has a long list of CDs with works by, among others.
Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich and Fauré.
Most prominent, however, are the recordings of Danish music by Carl Nielsen, Bent Sørensen, Karl Aage-Rasmussen and Per Nørgård.
In addition to concerts in Denmark, Esbjerg Ensemble can often be found on international stages through invitations to e.g.
Bergen International Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, NordlichterBerlin and China in addition to regular concerts in Northern Germany.
Jonas Frølund
Jonas Frølund is one of Denmark’s most promising young clarinetists, educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Superior Conservatory in Paris.
He has a broad repertoire with a focus on chamber music, solo performances and new music.
Jonas is solo clarinetist in the Danish National Entertainment Orchestra and the wind quintet V Coloris, and collaborates regularly with pianist Elias Holm.
He is recognized for creating music projects from scratch and has received awards for his work.
He has collaborated with Trio conBrio Copenhagen, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Marianna Shirinyan and the Danish String Quartet, and performs regularly with the Nightingale String Quartet.
Jonas Hunt
Jonas Hunt studied church music and early music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, followed by several years of private studies in harpsichord with prof.
Ketil Haugsand in Cologne.
He has worked extensively as a chamber musician and leader of the baroque ensemble Spielgarten, including at the Schütz Festspiel in Dresden 2014.
He trained as an orchestra conductor at Lund University and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and was conductor for Opera at Valdemars Slot 2006-18 and for the operetta company Polyhymnia 2018-19.
He is also a diligent composer and arranger and has written for the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Girls’ Choir, the Royal Danish Theatre, MidtVest Pigekor and others.
In the period 2012-22, Jonas Hunt was organist at Islev Church in Rødovre and head of Rødovre Choir School.
Since August 2022 he is cantor at Ribe Cathedral.
Kristoffer Hyldig
Kristoffer Hyldig made his debut at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2010 after studying with Professor Niklas Sivelöv and Tove Lønskov.
He plays regularly in music associations and festivals as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist and is co-founder of Messiaen Quartet Copenhagen.
Since 2006, he has released recordings of lieder, chamber music and solo works by, among others.
Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Bent Sørensen and Hindemith and has also been nominated for the P2 Music Prize.
As a soloist he has performed with i.a.
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Phil and the Royal Danish Orchestra.
He received the jury’s special prize in the EU Piano Competition 2009 and has also been awarded several prizes, including Jakob Gade’s large scholarship, Léonie Sonning’s Music Foundation Scholarship and the Music Critics’ Circle Artist Award.
Louise McClelland Jacobsen
Louise McClelland Jacobsen, soprano, studies from 2021 at the Opera Academy in Copenhagen with Professor Helene Gjerris and has also received coaching from renowned pianist Helmut Deutsch, Bo Skovhus, Anne Sofie von Otter and the esteemed Professor Yvi Jänicke in Hamburg.
Together with Kristian Riisager, piano, she won first prize in the Rued Langgaard Competition 2021.
In recent years, Louise McClelland has been a soloist with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen and Jönköping Sinfonietta as an oratorio and lieder singer.
She has also won awards and received several grants for her skills – most recently the Sonning Talent Award in 2023 and P2 Talent of the Year in 2024
Lene Juhl
Lene Juhl is a video artist, digital set designer and creative concept developer.
Using video, light and digital media, Lene Juhl creates multidisciplinary immersive projects in performing arts, site-specific projects, spatial installations, exhibitions and concerts.
Lene Juhl’s artistic expression lies at the intersection of visual art, design and live performance.
She creates her own projects or collaborates with stage directors, composers, choreographers, writers and producers in Denmark and abroad.
Lene Juhl is a trained singer from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, studied Master of Multimedia Arts at Aarhus University and has a Master in IT, Interaction Design and Multimedia from SDU.
LuLo
LuLo is a duo with bassist Mathæus Bech and cellist Kirstine Elise Pedersen.
They play interpretations of music by Langgaard and other classical works in their own unique mix of classical and folk music.
With the two deepest instruments in the string family, they have created a unique sound with a unique repertoire.
Both Elise Pedersen and Mathæus Bech originally studied classical music and have a great love for Ordic folk music.
LuLo’s repertoire is therefore inspired by both classical music and Nordic folk music, with a special passion for the music of Rued Langgaard
Philip Schmidt-Madsen
Philip Schmidt-Madsen is organist at Sct.
Matthæus Church in Vesterbro in Copenhagen.
He studied church music and organ at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
Danish Academy of Music and Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and made his debut from the soloist class in 2013.
He has won numerous awards and has a large concert activity in both Denmark and Europe.
He is also choir producer, accompanist and guest conductor for Sankt Annæ Pigekor, artistic director of the concert company Pro Musica Copenhagen, and since 2013 he has taught liturgical and solo organ at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
Danish Academy of Music.
Philip has recorded works by i.a.
Langgaard on the record label Naxos and is on the board of the Langgaard Society.
Bjarke Mogensen
Since his debut as a soloist with the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Bjarke Mogensen, accordion, has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the Danish classical music scene.
He won DR’s “Play for Life” and has performed in concert halls such as Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and Barbican Hall.
His collaborations range from classical musicians like Gidon Kremer to artists like Steffen Brandt and Bent Fabricius-Bjerre.
Bjarke impressed with his accordion duo, MYTHOS, by winning the P2 chamber music competition.
His repertoire includes original compositions, classical works and newly composed pieces, and he has inspired more than 60 new works for accordion.
He has won numerous awards and is the P2 Artist of the Year 2024 with a long list of concerts.
Motherboard
Motherboard is a community, a laboratory that radically rethinks opera.
Motherboard is a group of artists, each representing a field within opera’s core interdisciplinary arts and rethinking opera for the 21st century.
Motherboard consists of artistic director and composer SigneLykke, artistic director & soprano/performer Katinka Fogh Vindelev, choreographer Tim Matiakis, filmmakers Cille Hannibal and Frigge Fri.
Together, they share an ambition to create opera that you can mirror yourself in.
Opera that takes chances.
Performing arts for ‘non-performing spaces’.
Motherboard creates an expression that breaks down the distance between performer and audience, work and nature, creating sensuous universal narratives to reach audiences across age, gender and culture
Jørgen Herman Monrad
Jørgen Herman Monrad teaches German and philosophy at Sankt Annæ Gymnasium and regularly writes reviews of German and Eastern European literature for Weekendavisen, as well as literary travelogues for the literary magazine Standart.
Since 2007, he has translated a number of literary works from German, English and Polish into Danish for publishers such as Gyldendal, Vandkunsten, Batzer & Co, Tiderne Skifter and Arena.
Nightingale String Quartet
Nightingale String Quartet was formed in spring 2007 and consists of Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard, violin, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen, viola and Louisa Schwab, cello.
All four graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where Tim Frederiksen was their mentor and chamber music teacher.
With their recordings of Rued Langgaard’s complete works for string quartet, released by Dacapo, they have garnered international attention from music magazines such as
BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone.
In 2010 they received DR’s talent award and in 2013 DR’s P2 award for the best Danish release, as well as Anmelderringenens Kunstnerpris 2013.
In 2014, they were the first ensemble to be named Gramophone “Young Artist of the Year”.
All members of the quartet have alternated on the jury for the lRued Langgaard Competition.
Benjamin Friis Nielsen
Benjamin Friis Nielsen completed his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 2010 in the church music program where he studied with Professor Hans Fagius and Kurt Levorsen.
At the same time, he has taken improvisation classes with Mattias Wager in Stockholm.
2004-05 he studied in London, where he was organist at the Church of Denmark while taking lessons with organist David Sanger.
Benjamin Friis Nielsen has been employed as organist at St. Catharinæ Church in Ribe since 2010.
He is the founder and conductor of Ribe Drengekor.
Anne-Mette Villumsen
Anne-Mette Villumsen is an art historian and museum director at Ribe Art Museum.
She has previously been museum director at the Skovgaard Museum in Viborg.
Ribe Art Museum and Rued Langgaard Festival have entered into a collaboration agreement for the next three years, where an artwork or artist will be selected in relation to
this year’s festival theme.
At times
Stundom is a Danish folk music trio, with Jonas Frølund as guest soloist.
The trio plays Nordic music inspired by traditional Danish music mixed with classical chamber music and modern symphonic elements.
The trio members, Emma Elmøe (violin), Villads Hoffmann (zither) and Julian Svejgaard (piano), share a unique musical chemistry and ability to create catchy melodies.
Benjamin Arnika Skydsgaard
Benjamin Arnika Skydsgaard, pianist, is a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
He won 1st prize at the Langgaard Competition in 2023 with violinist Marcelina Sztekmiler.
Helle Lund Rosborg
Helle Lund Rosborg is project manager and fundraiser at Rued Langgaard Festival.
She is educated in music, film and media studies and has worked in Aalborg Symphony Orchestra as production coordinator and business development, and is a fundraiser at Opera in Rebild.
South Jutland Symphony Orchestra
The South Jutland Symphony Orchestra is a touring regional orchestra with 65 permanent musicians and roots dating back to 1936.
The orchestra plays around 150 events a year: symphony concerts, church, school, high school and family concerts.
There are also concerts with local amateur choirs, annual joint concerts with the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Sinfonieorchester and concerts with high school choirs from across the region.
Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester plays at The Danish National Opera’s performances in the region and regularly participates in broadcasts on DR P2.
The orchestra also records CDs on an ongoing basis, including for the Danacord and Dacapo labels.
Berit Johansen Tange
Berit Johansen Tange trained as a pianist at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Anne Øland and made her debut from the chamber music class in 2000.
She has been employed as an accompanist and repetiteur there since 2002.
She has performed as an accompanist, chamber musician and soloist in countless contexts at home and abroad and has worked intensively with Rued Langgaard’s music, including as co-editor and consultant on several releases under the Rued Langgaard Edition.
She has released four CDs of his solo piano works on the Dacapo label, and together with violinist Gunvor Sihm she has made the first complete recording of Langgaard’s works for violin and piano.
Esben Tange
Esben Tange holds an MA.
in Music and Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen.
Music critic at Berlingske Tidende 1994-95.
Program employee at DR P2 from 1995.
From 2007 editor and concert host.
Member of the board of the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation since 2004.
Chairman since 2012.
Co-founder of the Rued Langgaard Society in 2007.
Chairman of the company until 2011.
Esben Tange co-founder and festival director of Rued Langgaard Festival in Ribe.
Since 2002 and in collaboration with pianist Berit Johansen Tange, he has created a series of visually communicated concert performances with music by Langgaard, Schumann, Wagner and others.
Concept and staging of musical drama, including Parsifal in Ribe (2013), Antikrist (2015) and performances based on Niels W. Gade’s Elverskud (2017) and Grieg’s Peer Gynt (2019).
Lecturer and writer of articles on classical and modern music.
Author of, among others, Hjerterne opad I.
Towards the Light.
Rued Langgaard, Music and Symbolism (2014).
Bendt Viinholt Nielsen
Bendt Viinholt Nielsen is a music librarian and musicologist.
He was employed in the music publishing industry 1977-84, then at the Danish Music Information Center (MIC) and since 2003 he has been employed at the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces under the Ministry of Culture, from where he is now retired.
He is also periodically affiliated with the research department at the Royal Library.
In 1991 he published an inventory of Rued Langgaard’s works (the BVN inventory) and in 1993 a Langgaard biography, which was published in 2012 in an expanded and revised edition.
In 2000, Bendt Viinholt Nielsen established the Rued Langgaard Edition, a scholarly publishing series of the composer’s works.
The winners of the Langgaard Competition 2024
The winners of the Langgaard Competition 2024 were soprano Marie Borup and pianist Stefan Macovei, both students at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
None of them had any knowledge of Rued Langgaard’s music before the competition.
Still, they played their way to a great 1st place and a concert at Rued Langgaard Festival – which the audience can look forward to.
Elof Westergaard
Elof Westergaard, Bishop of Ribe Diocese, graduated as a theologian from Aarhus University in 1991 and was immediately appointed parish priest in Husby, Sønder Nissum and Thorsminde after being ordained as a priest in Ribe Cathedral.
From 2005 to 2014, he was a priest in Mariehøj Parish and from 2009 to 2014 he was also a dean in Silkeborg Provsti.
He was consecrated in Ribe Cathedral on June 1, 2014 and now lives in Bispegården in Ribe.
Previously, he was active as a choir singer, a skill that has already led to several musical collaborations during his time in Ribe.
