Balance in art and living

Artistic creation and lived life go together like Siamese twins for Karsten Fundal (b. 1966). If the one doesn't function, the other becomes weakened and inactive. For Fundal this means being on top of things, and thus establishing proper relations with the surrounding world just as much as cultivating his artistic career. It's about balance in life and in art, in the final analysis also about forming part of a meaningful social context, about establishing a kind of humanity and being something - for others as well as oneself. So when you consider Fundal's music you also have to consider what exists alongside the art - all that in the end is the precondition for the art to be manifested in the form of musical expression.

Karsten Fundal has studied composition with Hans Abrahamsen and Ib Nørholm, Karl Aage Rasmussen and Per Nørgård. A meeting with Nigel Osborne and (especially) Morton Feldman in 1986 at Dartington took on great importance for Fundal's development as a composer, and in the years 1987-88 he studied composition with Louis Andriessen in Holland.

Among the most important of his older works we find the violin concerto "Floating Lines â€“ Broken Mirrors" (1995-1996), the percussion concerto "Ritornello al Contrario" (1996-1997) and the ensemble work written for the Cikada Ensemble, "Circadian Pulse" (2002-2003),the orchestral works "Entropia" (1997-2001) for soloists, choir and large orchestra - written for the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR - and the orchestral work "Hush" (2003-2004).

Recently he has written the viola concerto for Odense Symphony orchestra and Soloist Raphael Altino, Premiered in November, as well as doing a number of Orchestral concerts with some of the best Bands in Denmark like: "Under byen", "Efterklang", and "Choir of young Believers", all with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra.

In recent years Karsten Fundal has had the pleasure of seeing a rapidly increasing interest in his music, which has led to a large number of commissions for new works, and has gradually won him a place as one of the major composers of his generation. Fundal's unmistakable talent has also evoked a response in the film world where, after great success with the music for the Dreyer film "Mikaël" (2003), premiered live with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, he wrote the music for Nikolaj Østergaard's Robert-award-winning documentary "Om Tro" (Short Film About Faith) (Nordisk Film 2005).

In 2007 Fundal completed the work on the music for the epic film "Flammen & Citronen" ("The Flame and the Citron") directed by Ole Christian Madsen (Nimbus Film 2008). It is an impressive and wide-ranging score for the most expensive movie ever produced in Denmark. Since then he has composed music for the Norwegian film "Jernanger" by Pål Jackmann, and the Television series "Blekingegadebanden" by Jacob Thuesen.

Karsten Fundal has been awarded the Wilhelm Hansen Composer's Prize 1994, the Prize of the Danish Composers' Society 1995, the Hvass Foundation's Artist's Grant 1995, the Queen Ingrid Memorial Grant 2005 and the Carl Nielsen Prize 2005. In 2009 the Håkon Börresen Prize. For the music for Peter Schønau Fog's feature film "Kunsten At Græde i Kor" (2007) ("The Art of Crying") Fundal won a Robert for best score and has thus won a place as the most important composer in Danish film for many years.