Aagaard-Nilsen, Torstein

Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen – Crossing Lines for trombone, accordion, violin and cello (1998)

(b. 11. January 1964, Oslo)

First performance:
Bodø, Novemeber 10th 2001
Jostein Stalheim, members of Bodø Sinfonietta

Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen was born in Oslo but grew up in Lofoten Northern Norway.
He took his education as a trumpeter in 1986-1990 at the Bergen Music Conservatoire – now Grieg Academy – where he also studied music pedagogy. In 1989-1990 he was in the composition class of Mogens Christensen.
From 1990 to 1994 Aagaard-Nilsen taught contemporary music at the same institution. For two years he studied mathematics and computer science at the Bergen University.
He was the director of Bergen’s Autunnale Festival also in the early 1990s. Since 2004 he has been artistic director of Bergen’s Brasswind Festival, which focuses on new music for all kinds of wind ensembles. In 2006 he founded the concert series Avgarde together with Ketil Hvoslef, Jostein Stalheim and Knut Vaage. The series, which is still running today, is an arena for local musicians and composers. Aagaard-Nilsen works as conductor of various school and amateur orchestras, and also as a teacher at the Manger Folk High School in Northern Hordaland. Manger Musikklag, the brass band from the same town, acts as the “house orchestra” in the Brasswind Festival.
Aagaard-Nilsen regards composing as a form of social activity. He writes:

‘Composers (and artists in general) play an important role in modern society. We are competing for attention with increasingly powerful media.
Art can do what commercial media cannot: it finds its way under the skin, as imprints of experiences. This aspect alone makes it imperative
to keep going’. …

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