Ole Schmidt

Ole Schmidt began his musical career as a jazz musician and, at the age of 20, was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he studied piano with Holger Lund Christiansen and composition with Vagn Holmboe. After completing his diploma as a pianist, he pursued conducting studies abroad and made his debut as a conductor and composer in 1955.
Ole Schmidt began his musical career as a jazz musician and, at the age of 20, was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he studied piano with Holger Lund Christiansen and composition with Vagn Holmboe. After completing his diploma as a pianist, he pursued conducting studies abroad and made his debut as a conductor and composer in 1955.
As a composer, he wrote a wide range of works, including symphonies, solo concertos, chamber music, ballet and orchestral works, and film music. His music is characterized by a clear and direct musical language, with distinctive rhythms and a strong sense of color and form. It is notable that he composed concertos for relatively unusual solo instruments such as accordion, guitar, tuba, and horn, but only one symphony and a few sonatas. The classical genre that appealed most to him was the string quartet, which he cultivated throughout his life, composing ten works between 1954 and 2005.
Ole Schmidt developed an early and close connection to musical theatre. He was employed as ballet conductor at the Royal Danish Theatre from 1959 to 1965 and had already established himself as a ballet composer in the 1950s. Later, he also composed opera, musicals, television plays, and film music, and his score for Carl Th. Dreyer’s classic silent film Jeanne d’Arc (1928), written for full symphony orchestra and soprano solo, was premiered in Los Angeles in 1983 as part of the Scandinavia Today festival. His personal life was likewise closely linked to the stage through his marriage to the ballet dancer and choreographer Lizzie Rohde.
As a conductor, Ole Schmidt had an extensive national and international career. He served as chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (1969–1970), DR Symphony Orchestra (1971–1974), and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (1978–1984), and he was at times also associated with DR’s Light Orchestra and the Royal Danish Theatre. In addition, he held numerous international engagements as a guest conductor and guest professor, particularly with English and American orchestras, conservatories, and universities. From 1993, he worked as a freelance conductor.
Ole Schmidt made a significant and highly appreciated contribution to Danish music as a conductor. Particularly notable is his recording of all of Carl Nielsen’s symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra, a pioneering achievement, but his recordings of Niels Viggo Bentzon’s early symphonies with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra also deserve recognition.

Ole Schmidt left behind a vast musical legacy and was regarded as temperamental, energetic, and uncompromising, traits that sometimes earned him adversaries but also made him an inspiring figure in Danish musical life. His life’s work demonstrates that classical music can be vibrant, contemporary, and open to new impulses, without compromising on quality or artistic integrity.