Simon Steen-Andersen is one of the most performed Danish composers of his generation, not only in Denmark but also internationally. His proliferating performance success has been followed by several honours, e.g. The Carl Nielsen Prize and Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Künste in Berlin (both 2013), the prize for the best orchestral work at the recently held Doneueschinger Musiktage and The Nordic Council Music Prize in 2014.

Seismograf/DMT wishes to celebrate the composer Simon Steen-Andersen. We present and reflect on parts of his comprehensive career, in a Danish and an international context. The music of Simon Steen-Andersen is characterised by tensions between expressions that are seemingly opposite: the banal and the intellectual; the immediate and the historical; the playful and the thoughtful; the quiet and the noisy.

This Focus features a longer interview by Seismograf/DMT's own Rasmus Holmboe; a reflection on the importance of the unrepeatable in Steen-Andersen’s music by composer and PhD Rune Søchting, and a contextualisation of central works by Norwegian editor and writer Ida Habbestad. Our Swedish colleague Andreas Engström writes about the new piano concerto (english translation forthcoming) and finally, Rasmus Holmboe reflects on the visual in Simon Steen-Andersen’s music.

The images for this Focus have kindly been provided by Ida Bach Jensen. They originate from the documentary Komponist, about the composers Simon Steen-Andersen, Henriette Groth and Eva Noer Kondrup. Watch the trailer.

The idea for this Focus comes from Jens Voigt-Lund. It has been realised and edited by Sanne Krogh Groth and Rasmus Holmboe, and published with financial support from Carl Nielsen Fonden. English translations by Helen Clara Hemsley. The Focus is also published in a Danish version.