Peter Bruun
Composer
Peter Bruun was born in Århus, Denmark in 1968 where his first musical influences were British pop-rock groups like Duran Duran, Simple Minds and Spandau Ballet.
Even though music was still an avocation at this time, the young Bruun took an interest in composition, writing his first choral work when he was 20.
Bruun attended Århus University from 1989 to 1991, majoring in philosophy all the while his musical interests continued to grow. After taking private lessons in theory and composition with Niels Marthinsen, he later attended the Royal Academy of Music in Århus where he studied with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Per Nørgård, Hans Abrahamsen and Bent Lorentzen.
Early on, Bruun distinguished himself as one of his generation’s most promising composers, receiving the Wilhelm Hansen’s Composer Prize in 2000. The eclectic nature of Bruun’s music characterizes the experiences of many ”forty-somethings”, where the influences of popular culture jostle and take their place alongside classical concert music. This stylistic fluidity defines much of Bruun’s work, whether in terms of direct stylistic quotation, as in his early composition from 1993, 4 Pieces in 3 Stages, which utilizes typical Danish schlager as its point of departure, or as it is often the case, creative collaborations with other artists and musicians.
Bruun has composed in many genres, including orchestral works, concerti, chamber and solo pieces and a considerable amount of choral music in addition to three highly successful music theater production, including his collaboration with poet and writer Ursula Andkjær Olsen, Miki Alone for which Bruun received the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2008.