Artist description A composer living and working in Iceland.

Music Style contemporary classical concert music

Musical Influences Bartok, Bach, Martinu, Prokofieff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, McKinley, Brahms

Similar Artists Bartok, Bach, Martinu, Prokofieff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, McKinley, Brahms

Artist History Mr.Mogensen started playing classical guitar at the age of nine. After several years of playing the instrument and learning to read music, on his own, he enrolled to Tónskóli Sigursveins D. Kristinssonar in the fall of 1974 and started his studies with Mr.Gunnar H. Jónsson, who was at the time one of the leading guitar teachers in Iceland. He moved to Spain in 1979 and took up his studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Málaga , Andalusia. One year later he transferred to Conservatorio Oscar Éspla in Alicante and began studying the guitar with Mr.José Tómas, who had been an assistant to Mr.Andres Segovia at the famous summer courses in Santiago de Compostela. Alicante was at the time a city that attracted students from all over the world to study the classical guitar under the guidance of Maestro Tómas. In the year 1984 Mr.Mogensen had moved back to Iceland and started teaching the instrument at various music schools in and around Reykjavík. In 1989 Mr.Mogensen enrolled at Reykjavík College of Music. This time to study theory and composition. His first teacher was Gudmundur Hafsteinsson DMA. in composition from Julliard School of Music and the chairman of the department. His last year Mr.Mogensen studied with Hródmar Sigurbjörnsson and graduated in the spring of 1992 with BM in Theory and Composition. In April 1993 his Clarinet Concerto was performed by MIT in Kresge Auditorium and was well received and the music critic of Boston Globe, Richard Buell, had this to say about the Concerto “ …. the Clarinet Concerto combined logic, consistency and finish, a fanciful crystalline approach to timbre and atmosphere”. The Concerto was premiered by Reykjavík College Orchestra in the fall of 1993. During summer 1993 Mr.Mogensen was commissioned by the recording label MMC to write a new piece for orchestra to be recorded in Polland by Krakow Philharmonics. It was recorded in 1994 in Krakow and released on a CD by MMC in 1997. Mr.Mogensen moved to Boston in 1995 and soon started working for MMC label as an assistant project coordinator. In September 1997 his piece Chant was premiered by Heliosphere in Merkin Concert Hall NY. In the magazine New Music Connoisseur this was said about the piece “….the most striking work being by Mogensen who is an Icelandic composer. This piece was entitled Chant and although the composer describes it as jazz-influenced, it appears associated with traditional Icelandic folk music, a strong influence on many of Iceland´s contemporary composers”.The same magazine has this to say about the release of his orchestral work Rendez-vous (MMC); …Mogensen´s massive tone poem makes for fascinating contrasts in tonal exploration, with unbearable atonal tension abetted by powerful ostinati with sometimes unusual instrumental assignments. Mogensen´s march of inevitability proceeds unremittingly for close to 14 minutes; only at the very end does the music wind down into a sort of ghostly echo of earlier material, hardly a resolution, but nonetheless convincing”.Mr.Mogensen started his studies at Boston University in the fall of 1997. He was accepted as an assistant teacher. He graduated in the spring of 1999 with MM in composition, after two years of study with Lukas Foss and Tison Street. He also studied Film and Theater Music and conducting with Theodore Antoniu. Mr.Mogensen graduated as a member of Pi Kappa Lambda from Boston University. A recipient of many grants including from Ministry of Culture I received a one year "stipend" in 1995, a grant from the National Radio Composers fund in 1995 and a grant from theReykjavík City Arts Council also in 1995.Presently Mr.Mogernsen works as a theory and music history teacher at several music schools in and around Reykjavik. Recent premiers and upcoming events His orchestral piece L´homme armé was premiered by Time´s Arrow; Twentieth-century music ensemble, in Tsai Performance Center on February 2nd 1999. The conductor was Theodore Antoniu. His piece Black & White for clarinet and piano was premiered at Harvard Divinity School; Andover Chapel in April 2000. His String Quartet No.1 was premiered by Stamic String Quartet at Academy of Music Prague; Martinu Hall, in October 2000 and recorded the following day. It will be released on a CD by MMC label. His song for mezzo-soprano and piano Natura Morente, was performed several times in Reykjavík, Iceland in the fall of 2000 and performed on National Television. Other performances are; Veni Sponsa Christi for mixed choir; Grafarvogs Church 1998 and Boston University 1999 and Suite for solo flute and Toccata for solo cello at Boston University in 1999. Upcoming events; New String Quartet (no.2) to be premiered by Martinu String Quartet at a Festival of Contemporan Music in Prague in the fall of 2001. Mr.Mogensen is currently planning a recital of his own music in Reykjavík for the fall/winter 2001 and 2002 season.

Instruments guitar, composer

Location Kopavogur - Iceland

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