Welcome to my website.

 

I am a Danish composer and pianist, born, raised, and based in Odense, and I specialize in writing music that helps tell a good story. With a BA in Musicology and Applied Dramaturgy from Aarhus University and an MA in Composition of Music for Film and Television from Bristol University, I’ve had the pleasure of composing music for, among others, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Gyldendal, Egmont, Lindhardt & Ringhof, and Fredericia Musical Theatre.

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This website is dedicated to my work on the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, which occupied me from 2008 to 2010. During this period, I composed approximately 2.5 hours of music for eight of Andersen’s stories, including The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, and The Little Mermaid. The music was published by Gyldendal as a collection of audiobooks narrated by Marie Markvard Andersen. The audiobooks are available on many different platforms, including Mofibo.

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On February 8th, 2025, my music for one of these stories, The Princess and the Pea, was premiered by the Odense Symphony Orchestra at a “teddy-bear concert” for young children. (The Princess and the Pea is an orchestral work of about seven minutes, adapted from a piano piece composed in 2009.)

The Princess and the Pea

World Premiere

On February 8th, 2025, my music for The Princess and the Pea was premiered by the Odense Symphony Orchestra. The Odense Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Marit Tøndel Bodsberg, and the story was narrated by Vicki Gemmer Schultz. Joining them on stage were students from the theatre school TOPPEN.

I began composing music for the fairy tales of H.C. Andersen in 2008 while I was studying at Aarhus University. Over the following two years, I composed approximately 2.5 hours of music for eight of Andersen’s tales in their full length.

The music spans a wide range: from small piano pieces, as in The Princess and the Pea and The Little Match Girl, to grand, adventurous orchestral music in The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, and The Little Mermaid.

After sending the music to Gyldendal, the eight stories were published digitally, narrated by Marie Markvard Andersen.
Excerpt from THUMBELINA
 
Near the wood in which she had been living lay a corn-field, but the corn had been cut a long time; nothing remained but the bare dry stubble standing up out of the frozen ground. It was to her like struggling through a large wood. Oh! how she shivered with the cold. She came at last to the door of a field-mouse, who had a little den under the corn-stubble. There dwelt the field-mouse in warmth and comfort, with a whole roomful of corn, a kitchen, and a beautiful dining room.
Poor little Tiny stood before the door just like a little beggar-girl, and begged for a small piece of barley-corn, for she had been without a morsel to eat for two days.
"You poor little creature," said the field-mouse, who was really a good old field-mouse, “come into my warm room and dine with me.”
She was very pleased with Tiny, so she said, "You are quite welcome to stay with me all the winter, if you like; but you must keep my rooms clean and neat, and tell me stories, for I shall like to hear them very much." And Tiny did all the field-mouse asked her, and found herself very comfortable.
 
Published by Gyldendal
Narrated by Marie Markvard Andersen
Music by Morten Gildberg-Hansen

Excerpt from THE LITTLE MERMAID

Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects. We must not imagine that there is nothing at the bottom of the sea but bare yellow sand. No, indeed; the most singular flowers and plants grow there; the leaves and stems of which are so pliant, that the slightest agitation of the water causes them to stir as if they had life. Fishes, both large and small, glide between the branches, as birds fly among the trees here upon land. In the deepest spot of all, stands the castle of the Sea King. Its walls are built of coral, and the long, gothic windows are of the clearest amber. The roof is formed of shells, that open and close as the water flows over them. Their appearance is very beautiful, for in each lies a glittering pearl, which would be fit for the diadem of a queen.
The Sea King had been a widower for many years, and his aged mother kept house for him. She was a very wise woman, and exceedingly proud of her high birth; on that account she wore twelve oysters on her tail; while others, also of high rank, were only allowed to wear six. She was, however, deserving of very great praise, especially for her care of the little sea-princesses, her grand-daughters. They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest of them all; her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea; but, like all the others, she had no feet, and her body ended in a fish's tail.
 
Published by Gyldendal
Narrated by Marie Markvard Andersen
Music by Morten Gildberg-Hansen

Excerpt from THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER

There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were all brothers, for they had been made out of the same ol tin spoon. They shouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendid uniform, red and blue. Th first thing in the world they ever heard were the words, "Tin soldiers!" uttered by a little boy, who clapped his hand with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, was taken off. They were given him for a birthday present and he stood at the table to set them up. The soldiers were all exactly alike, excepting one, who had only one leg he had been left to the last, and then there was not enough of the melted tin to finish him, so they made him t stand firmly on one leg, and this caused him to be very remarkable
The table on which the tin soldiers stood, was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle. Through the small windows the rooms could be seen. In front of the castle a number of little trees surrounded a piece of looking-glass, which was intended to represent a transparent lake. Swans, made of wax, swam on the lake, and were reflected in it. All this was very pretty, but the prettiest of all was a tiny little lady, who stood at the open door of the castle; she, also, was made of paper, and she wore a dress of clear muslin, with a narrow blue ribbon over her shoulders just like a scarf. In front of these was fixed a glittering tinsel rose, as large as her whole face. The little lady was a dancer, and she stretched out both her arms, and raised one of her legs so high, that the tin soldier could not see it at all, and he thought that she, like himself, had only one leg.
"That is the wife for me," he thought; "but she is too grand, and lives in a castle, while I have only a box to live in, five-and-twenty of us altogether, that is no place for her. Still I must try and make her acquaintance." Then he laid himself at full length on the table behind a snuff-box that stood upon it, so that he could peep at the little delicate lady, who continued to stand on one leg without losing her balance.
When evening came, the other tin soldiers were all placed in the box, and the people of the house went to bed. Then the playthings began to have their own games together, to pay visits, to have sham fights, and to give balls. The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid. The nut-crackers played at leap-frog, and the pencil jumped about the table. There was such a noise that the canary woke up and began to talk, and in poetry too. Only the tin soldier and the dancer remained in their places.
 
Published by Gyldendal
Narrated by Marie Markvard Andersen
Music by Morten Gildberg-Hansen