Starring in Langgaard Festival 2025
On this page you can read about the participating musicians, artists and speakers at Langgaard Festival 2025.
Jens Cornelius
Jens Cornelius (1968), cand.phil. in Musicology from the University of Copenhagen. Program staff member at DR’s classical radio channel P2 and program writer for the DR Symphony Orchestra and the DR Vocal Ensemble. Chairman of the Weyse Foundation and has previously been on the board of the Rued Langgaard Society. He is also the editor of the book series Danish Composers (for the publisher Multivers) and has written the books about the composers Ludolf Nielsen, Victor Bendix and Emil Reesen. His next book, about the composer P.E. Lange-Müller, will be published shortly.
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, as well as journalism and communication at DJH.
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.
David Danholt
David Danholt, tenor, is a graduate of the Opera Academy and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He has an extensive concert career as an oratorio and opera singer and has performed on opera stages in the US and Europe, including the Bayreuth Festival, where he sang the role of Claudio in Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot.
In 2014 he won 1st prize in the International Wagner Competition in Seattle. David Danholt has received the Reumert Talent Prize and the Music Critics’ Circle’s Artist Prize and is associated with the Royal Danish Theatre as a guest soloist.
Deeply felt
Dybfølt 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 Nordic folk music.
Their repertoire is therefore inspired by both classical music and Nordic folk music, with a particular passion for the music of Rued Langgaard
Jonas Eika
Jonas Eika is the author of ‘Lageret Huset Marie’, ‘Eftersolen’ and most recently ‘Open Heaven’, a historical novel about the beginnings of the Christian women’s movement.
They have also edited a selection of Ivan Malinowski’s poems under the title ‘Isn’t death political?’ and, in collaboration with Nanna Dahler, translated American author Jackie Wang’s ‘Prison Capitalism’ into Danish.
Jonas Eika has received the Blixen Prize, the Montana Literature Prize and the Nordic Council Literature Prize.
Astrid Grarup Elbo
Astrid Grarup Elbo is a principal dancer at The Royal Danish Ballet, choreographer. Trained at the Royal Danish Ballet School and principal dancer since 2023. Received Reumert 2020 as Dancer of the Year for Bonnie & Clyde and was nominated in 2024 for Waiting Places. Choreographer behind Folkeviser (2025), Skønheden og Sacre (2024) and CHARMS (2023).
Core member of the duo La Mia Bella Sorella with violinist Katrine Grarup Elbo.
Has danced leading roles as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Karen Blixen, and Hilda in A Folktale. Regular dancer in Verdensballet since 2021.
Katrine Grarup Elbo
Katrine Grarup Elbo studied violin at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the soloist program at the Academy of Music, Southern Denmark. She made her solo debut at Castello del Valentino in Turin, Italy in 2018.
Katrine is a member of the sound collective We like We and the Berlin-based trio toechter, as well as the performance duo La Mia Bella Sorella with solo dancer Astrid Grarup Elbo.
Katrine released her solo album Fold Unfold in 2021 on the German label Sonic Pieces. She has also created music for theater, film, and commercials.
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 Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich, Fauré and others.
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 the Bergen International Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, NordlichterBerlin and China, as well as regular concerts in northern Germany.
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.
Laura Helene Hansen
Laura Helene Hansen is currently studying for her postgraduate degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
She obtained her master’s degree from the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in 2024. She participated in the documentary series The Next Diva.
Laura’s background story arouses great interest both inside and outside the classical music world. In particular, she manages to arouse curiosity for opera among audiences who don’t normally seek out the genre, as she herself is an unexpected interpreter.
Much of Laura’s work and passion revolves around underrepresented composers, especially Danish women.
Josefine Weber Hansen
Josefine Weber Hansen is a composer and performer. She holds a master’s degree in singing from DKDM, studied at the Eastman School of Music (USA) and has a bachelor’s degree in both voice and viola.
She creates music that unites sonic textures, interdisciplinary narrative and collective creation.
Josefine She has received the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Talent Prize (2021) and the Odd Fellow Music Prize (2018) Josefine is a central figure in Damkapellet and co-founder of Kunstnerkollektivet Venteværelset-an experimental opera group.
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 Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Bent Sørensen and Hindemith, among others, and has also been nominated for the P2 Music Prize.
As a soloist, he has performed with 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 Prize in 2023 and P2 Talent of the Year in 2024.
Jacob Kirkegaard
Jacob Kirkegaard (1975) is a sound artist who made his debut as a sound recorder at the age of 6 and was introduced to sound art in 1994.
Kirkegaard uses recordings of everything from melting ice and firearms to human ear sounds (otoacoustic emissions). He has exhibited at MoMA (New York), LOUISIANA and ARoS, and is represented by Fridman Gallery and Galleri Tom Christoffersen. His work has been released by labels such as Touch (UK) and Important Records (USA).
Member of the sound art collective freq_out and founder of the art organization TOPOS. Received the Eckersberg Medal from the Academy Council in 2022 for his artistic contributions. Has collaborated with artists such as Else Marie Pade, Lydia Lunch and Julie Martin. Taught and researched at the University of Oxford and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, among others. Collaborated with the UN Waste Wise Cities program as a sound artist and advisor on the Global Plastics Agreement.
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 Det Kgl. 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 Langgaard and others 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.
