Olav Anton Thommessen

Olav Anton Thommessen (born 16 May 1946) is a Norwegian contemporary composer.

He is a son of the diplomat Knut Thommessen (né Knut Saenger), a grandson of the German gynecologist Hans Saenger and a great-grandson of the gynecologist Max Saenger. He trained in the United States, earning degrees from Westminster Choir College and Indiana University. He is a former professor of composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he was employed in 1972. He is now retired.

Thommessen is a productive composer who utilizes a tonal language bordering on the radical while also harking back to classical roots. Through his compositional career, Thommessen has influenced the outlook on modern music through his career as a scholar and an advocate for dissemination of information on Norwegian contemporary music. Thommessen's list of works includes numerous symphonic works, chamber music pieces, and vocal music works. He has written several operas.

From 1972 onwards, Thommessen distinguished himself more and more as a composer through performances of his works at major festivals and with key orchestras: his work Some Sound was nominated for the 1972 ISCM World Music Days in London, Down-Up/Sunpiece saw a performance with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1973 and Mutually was bestowed with the award Samtida Musiks Quality Prize and was premiered at the Bergen International Festival in 1973. Following this breakthrough, Thommessen received a number of commissions; Stabsarabesk, Banners for Music, Maldoror, The Secret Gospel; The Overtone and A Concert Chamber are all works that represent this compositional period, not to mention an early version of The Hermaphrodite, premiered at the Vadstena Academy in 1976.

The early 80s saw Thommessen gradually employing quotes and well-known phrases as basis for some of his works. The initial works that would later constitute his full-length concert opera A Glass Bead Game saw the light of day during this period: From a Glass Bead Game featuring themes from Beethoven and Verdi – premiered by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1980, Macrofantasy On Grieg's, 'Piano Concerto in a Minor', Op. 16 premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 1981 and Beyond Neon performed by the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra in 1982. Through a Prism was penned in 1982. As composer in residence at the 1982 Bergen International Festival, Thommessen’s piano work EingeBACHt saw its premiere at the festival as did a performance of the final version of his opera The Hermaphodite – a work that was premiered earlier the same year by the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. The same year also saw Thommessen composing the stage music for a version of Romeo and Juliet performed at the unveiling of the Norwegian Theatre’s new Oslo building, while The Emerald Tablet saw its premiere at the Høvikodden/Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and Gnostic Fragments as well as The Phantom of Light were commissioned by the Swedish National Concert Institute.

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