Who is Gisle Kverndokk?

“Gisle Kverndokk is a composer with so many different irons in the fire. He is just as sure of style in today's innovative sound world as in the musical's theatrical form. And now he has truly created something that definitely points straight back in time, when romance was the ultimate beauty.”

Trond Erikson, The classic CD blog, 3/5 – 21

Gisle Kverndokk studied composition at The Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo and at The Juilliard School in New York City.

He has an extensive production of musical theatre. With librettist Øystein Wiik, he has written 14 musicals and operas performed extensively in Norway, Germany, Austria and the USA. Their first collaboration was “Sophie’s World”, premiered at The Ettlingen Schlossfestspiele in 1998. “Martin L.” (2008) was nominated for The Nordic Council’s Music Prize. The opera “Around the world in 80 days” was commissioned for the opening of the new Opera House in Oslo and premiered there in May 2010. A new version was presented at Landestheater Linz, Austria, in 2016, and won 6 awards at the German Musical Theatre Awards, including Best Musical. The musical “The Name of the Rose” was a big success at The Domstufen Festspiele, Erfurt, in 2019. “Trolle unter uns” was premiered at Luisenburg Festspiele in 2021, and “Fanny und Alexander” was premiered at Landestheater Linz in 2022. “Soga om Sol” was premiered at Opera Nordfjord, Norway, in October -23.

With librettist Ivar Tindberg, Kverndokk wrote the radio opera “Bokken Lasson – stumbling success”, which won the Prix Italia in 2000. Their opera “The fourth Watch of the Night” premiered at The Norwegian National Opera in 2005, and was awarded the Edvard Prize. It was revived in 2012 and was presented at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland.

With librettist Aksel-Otto Bull, Kverndokk has written several operas and musicals. The opera “Easter”, premiered in 2014 at Opera Sør in Kristiansand, and in 2017 their church opera “Upon this handful of earth” was premiered at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York. The musical “Letters from Ruth” (2015) has been workshopped in New York and Oslo, and had a semi-staged performance by New York Opera Society in Washington DC in 2017. The world premiere was at Musical Frühling in Gmunden, Austria, in 2023. This production won several awards at The German Musical Theatre Awards, including best composer and best musical.

Kverndokk’s children’s opera “Purriot”, libretto by Bjørn Rørvik, premiered at The Norwegian National Opera in May 2018, and won the Norwegian Critics’ Prize for Music in 2018.

All the major orchestras in Norway have performed his works, among them The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 1999-2000 season he was “Composer of the year” with The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 he won The Juilliard Composers Competition, and in 1993 the 1. prize for composers under 30 at the Paris ROSTRUM.

His Harp Concerto was premiered in January 2024, by the National Symphony Orchestra of Maribor, Slovenia, with Ursula Ascic as soloist.

Kverndokk has also written music film, theatre, church music and chamber music. His CD “Fuge der Zeit”, with the vocal ensemble Nordic Voices, was nominated for two Spellemann Awards in 2016. “Symphonic Dances”, written for Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in 2014, was released by SSO Recordings in 2018, to rave reviews, and nominated for Spellemann and Grammy Awards. An album of his songs, “Så kort ein sommar menneska har”, was released in 2021 by LAWO. They released his wind octet “The Silk Road” in 2023.

Kverndokk was awarded “Composer of the Year” at the Norwegian Publishers’ Awards, 2019.