Norwegian male composers

Erling Asbjørn Kjellsby (7 July 1901 - 20 February 1976) was a Norwegian organist and composer.

Tellef Øgrim (born 27 January 1958) is a Norwegian fretless guitarist, composer and journalist.
He played in oboist Jan Wiese's band Bitihorn from 1976 and joined Ole Hedemann's Ung Pike Forsunnet (UPF) in 1981. UPF released two albums. In 1985 Øgrim and vocalist Anne Danielsen (later his wife) formed the soul-rock band Duck Spin, releasing the group's only album Wake me when the Moon gets up the year after. In 1987 Øgrim released the jazz-rock album Libido (Hot Club Records) with Henrik Hellstenius (keyb), Tore Eide (bs/cl) and Inge Norum (dr/prc).During the same period of time he wrote music for two theater plays staged by Piotr Cholodzinski.In 2004 Øgrim released a CD containing improvisations for fretless electric guitar under the title Some Dodos Never Die and in 2007 the CD Wagon 8| was released on Curling Legs Records with Polish drummer Jacek Kochan, trombonist Dag Einar Eilertsen, Henrik Hellstenius (laptop) (one track) and singer Anne Danielsen (one track).
In 2008 Øgrim played on the free jazz CD Do I the In? (Not Two Records) where he played with Joe Fonda (bs), Jacek Kochan (dr) and Franz Hautzinger (trp). In 2010 he formed the music-live-video project Mugetuft with Peter Knudsen and Henrik Hellstenius and an improvisational trio with cello player Clementine Gasser and Jacek Kochan. This trio's first album was released by Not Two Records.Since 2014 Øgrim has cooperated with Swedish bassist Anders Berg on several duo albums. Berg and Øgrim have gone on to create the record label Simlas that also has released Øgrim's latest solo album called Fat Fit - Solos for Guitars. In January 2017 Øgrim went on to form a free jazz trio with Peeter Uuskyla and Anders Berg by releasing the album Ullr.Øgrim has been a journalist since the late 1980s writing for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), Dagens Naeringsliv, Ballade and Oslo Business Memo, and Oslo Innovation Magazine and Blue Frontier Magazine. He also is a speaker on topics relating to art and technology.

Marius Müller (20 August 1958 – 14 March 1999) was a Norwegian guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, radio host, television host and record producer. He was raised in Manglerud, Oslo and began his career as a professional musician at sixteen. He first became famous in 1981 with the song "Den du veit" and released a total of six solo albums and five albums within the band Funhouse where he was the front man. Müller died 14 March 1999 in a car accident in Groruddalen, Oslo. He was considered one of the foremost guitarists in Norway.

Steinar Ofsdal (born 4 October 1948) is a Norwegian composer and flutist.

Kjell Mørk Karlsen (born 31 March 1947) is a Norwegian composer and organist.

Wolfgang Plagge (born 23 August 1960 in Oslo, Norway by Dutch parents) is a Norwegian composer and pianist.

Kristian Hauger (24 October 1905 – 18 October 1977) was a Norwegian pianist, orchestra leader and composer of popular music from the late 1920s to mid 1950s.Kristian Asbjørn Hauger was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. His father, Hans August Hauger (1867–1928) was a businessman who operated the Norwegian Christmas Card Company (Norsk Julekortudsalg). He studied musical theory with composer Gustav Fredrik Lange (1861–1939) during 1921–22. From 1921 to 1925, he was a student of piano composer Nils Larsen (1888–1937).
He formed the Kristian Hauger Jazz Orchestra in 1929 and became known to a wider audience with the Kristian Hauger Radio Dance Orchestra, which became a widely used studio orchestra in the 1930s. With his orchestra he also recorded a large number of his own compositions. He was musical director of the jazz stage at Bristol from 1928 to 1930, at Le Chat Noir from 1930 to 1936 and at Centralteatret on Akersgata in Oslo from 1936 to 1959.
He composed about one thousand melodies throughout his career. His first composition was the prize-winning Charleston i Grukkedalen, which became a great success. Among his songs are Blåklokker (1929, lyrics Herbert Herding), En Oslodag (1933, text Per Kvist), En herre med bart (1942, text Finn Bø) and Når kastanjene blomstrer i Bygdø Allé (1950, text Gunnar Kaspersen).

Odd Ragnar Grüner-Hegge (September 23, 1899 – May 11, 1973) was a Norwegian conductor and composer. He was the longest-serving conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, and he was the conductor at the Norwegian National Opera in the 1960s.

Finn Einar Mortensen (January 6, 1922 – May 23, 1983) was a Norwegian
composer, critic and educator.Mortensen was born in Oslo. His parents were publisher Ernst Gustav Mortensen (1887–1966) and Anna Marie Damnæs (1886–1960). Mortensen grew up in a publishing environment and it was at first expected that he would go into his father's publishing firm, Ernst G. Mortensens Forlag A/S. He studied harmony with Thorleif Eken (1900–1955), composition with Klaus Egge and with Niels Viggo Bentzon at The Royal Danish Academy, as well as the piano and double bass at the Oslo Conservatory of Music. He also participated in the Darmstadt summer school and in the classes conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Studio für Elektronische Musik in Cologne.The first public presentation of one of Mortensen's compositions was the Trio for Strings, Op. 3, which was played at the Young Nordic Music Festival in Oslo in 1950. In April 1954 he had his debut as a composer, along with Øistein Sommerfeldt. He was the leader of the group Ny Musikk, a Norwegian advocacy group for contemporary music, between 1961 and 1964, and between 1966 and 1967. From 1963-73, he was a music critic in Dagbladet, and he was also for many years correspondent for the major German magazine Melos. When the Norwegian Concert Institute was established in 1968, he became the institution's first director. From 1970 onward, he taught at the Oslo Conservatory of Music, becoming Norway's first professor of composition in 1973.
Rolf Wallin, Jon Mostad, Lasse Thoresen, Terje Bjørklund and Synne Skouen are among his students.
Until about 1953, Mortensen's music was mostly influenced by neoclassicism and expressionism. It later assimilated twelve-tone and aleatoric influences, creating what Mortensen termed a "neo-serial" style. From a point of departure in neo-classicism he became deeply involved with serial techniques. In Norway, Mortensen's works are still regularly performed by leading orchestras. In the rest of the world, however, he is less well-known.

Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe (10 December 1926 – 1 February 2013) was a Norwegian musicologist, composer, music critic and biographer. He was a lecturer at the University of Oslo for thirty years, from 1973 with the title of professor. His research mainly centered on the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.