Kim André Arnesen
One of the world's most frequently performed contemporary choral composers, Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980) is a classical musician from Trondheim, Norway. Although an avid follower of MTV and a huge fan of The Cure at ten years old, he also studied classical piano, was a chorister in the Nidaros Cathedral Boys’ Choir and was later educated at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. With deep interests in baroque, contemporary classical, and popular music, his musical career could have taken many roads... but choral music became his greatest passion.
Kim's album Magnificat was recorded and released by 2L in 2014 and received rave reviews in many classical music magazines, among them Gramophone and Choir & Organ. Gramophone calls his music 'haunting, beautifully arched, warmly compassionate'.
His second album, Infinity: Choral Works (Naxos), released January 2018, climbed to No.2 on the best-selling classical albums on iTunes, No.6 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums Charts.
Among his most popular and globally performed choral works are Even When He is Silent, Cradle Hymn, and Flight Song. His music has sold in six figure numbers and has been performed in more than 30 countries. In 2016 his Cradle Hymn was performed at the White House for President Barack Obama.
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The National Lutheran Choir commissioned and premiered Kim's Holy Spirit Mass in commemoration of the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation at The National Cathedral in Washington DC in 2017. The European premiere of the Mass was in Rome at the opening of the 2018 Festival of Sacred Music and Art.
Other large works include The Wound in the Water, commissioned by the St. Olaf Festival in Trondheim and premiered by Conspirare, Elin Manahan Thomas and conductor Craig Hella Johnson in 2016, Tuvayhun – Beatitudes for a Wounded World, commissioned and premiered by the Manhattan Girls Chorus and conductor Michelle Oesterle in 2018, Nordic Christmas, commissioned and premiered by VocalEssence and Philip Brunelle in 2019, Stabat Mater for Haderslev Cathedral Girls’ Choir in Denmark in 2020, and Nordlys for the World Choral Fest 2020.
In December 2020 and January 2021 Kim released four piano singles: Light a Candle, December Night, Snow Light, and Winter Moon on Decca Classics. Winter Moon reached No.1 on Apple Music's classical charts.
Kim is an elected member of the Norwegian Composers Society and his music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
February 2021
This biography can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with the following credit: Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes.
