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About Karsten

Karsten Fundal is widely acknowledged for working within many styles, genres and instrumental combinations, always with an unmistakable personal sound and quality and curious to break new ground.
In recent years the rapidly increasing interest in Karsten Fundal’s music has led to a large number of commissions for new works, and has gradually won him a place as one of the major composers of his generation.
In 2006 he won a Robert Award for best music for the acclaimed film The Art of Crying by Peter Schønau Fog. In 2007 Fundal completed the work on the music for the epic film Flammen & Citronen (Flame and Citron) directed by Ole Christian Madsen. Since then he has composed music for numerous films, like the Finnish documentary Canned Dreams by Katja Gauriloff, (Jussi Award 2013), the Danish feature Excuse me by Henrik Ruben-Genz, Danny’s Doomsday by Martin Barnewitz and the documentary The Act Of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, which was Oscar nominated in 2014 as well as winning a BAFTA 2014, a European Film Award in 2013 and about 30 other major prizes. The 3D documentary Halden, Michael Madsen’s contribution to the Wim Wenders and Neue Road Movies coproduction Cathedrals of Culture, set to music by Karsten Fundal, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival 2014. Further film scores include the music to The Visit by Michael Madsen, which premiered at Sundance in 2014 (where Fundal was Composer in Spotlight), Bridgend by Jeppe Rønde, which had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival and received three awards at Tribeca Film Festival and Fúsi (Virgin Mountain) by Dagur Kári, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival 2015, won the top prize at Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded the Nordic Council Film Prize 2015.
Karsten Fundal recently completed the scores for The Shadow World by Johan Grimonprez and Andrei Nekrasov’s The Magnitsky Act - Behind the Scenes, and set Lise Birk Pedersen's latest documentary TUTTI A CASA - Power to the People? to music. He is currently working on the music for Peter Schønau Fog's drama You Disappear and Sun Hee Engelstoft's documentary No Regrets.
Karsten Fundal has studied composition with Hans Abrahamsen and Ib Nørholm, Karl Aage Rasmussen and Per Nørgård. A meeting with Nigel Osborne and (especially) Morton Feldman in 1986 at Dartington influenced Fundal's development as a composer, and in the years 1987-88 he studied composition with Louis Andriessen in The Netherlands.
Fundal has written numerous orchestral and chamber works for all major symphony orchestras and ensembles in Denmark as well as chamber and orchestral works for several major soloists and music for dance. He wrote his latest composition for dance for the piece 360° by choreographer Stephanie Thomasen with a premiere in early 2015 with the Uppercut Dance Theatre. Fundals large orchestral work Liquid Rooms was premiered in fall 2014 and his latest children’s opera Goodnight my dear with a libretto by Tobias Ørum had its premiere in March 2015. Fundal has extensively collaborated with orchestras and various Indie projects such as Efterklang, Choir of Young Believers, Oh Land, Den Sorte Skole. The most recent collaborative opera project with Efterklang, Leaves – The Colour of Falling was premiered with great success at Copenhagen Opera Festival in August 2015, received the Carl Prisen 2016 and was nominated for the prestigious Reumert Award in the category Opera of the Year.






Filmography
Ai Weiwei, Human Flow 2017
Ai Weiwei The Rest 2018
Doris Dörrie, Kirschbluten und Daemonen, 2018
Sun Hee Engelstoft: Forget me not, 2018
Lise Birk Pedersen: TUTTI A CASA - Power to the People?, 2016
Andrei Nekrasov: The Magnistky Act - Behind the Scenes, 2016
Johan Grimonprez: The Shadow World, 2015
Dagur Kári: Fúsi (engl: Virgin Mountain), 2015
Jeppe Rønde: Bridgend, 2015
Michael Madsen: The Visit, 2015
Martin Barnewitz: Dannys Dommedag, 2014
Michael Madsen: Halden (episode), in: Cathedrals of Culture, 2014
Kristoffer Kiørboe: Søn, 2014
Audun Selsjord Bratlie: Skogens Konge, 2012
Katja Gauriloff: Säilöttyjä unelmia (engl: Canned Dreams), 2012, Best Original Score at Jussi Awards Finland
Joshua Oppenheimer: The Act of Killing, 2012
Henrik Ruben Genz: Undskyld jeg forstyrrer (engl: Excuse me), 2012
Linda Wendell: Julie, 2011
Michael Madsen: Into Eternity, 2010
Gabriel Isas: Hunted, 2010
Jacob Thuesen: Blekingegade, Teleseries, 2009
Pål Jackman: Jernanger (engl: Storm in my heart), 2008
Ole Christian Madsen: Flammen og Citronen (engl: Flame & Citron), 2007
Peter Schønau Fog: Kunsten at græde i kor (engl: The Art of Crying), 2006, Best Original Score at Danish TV Awards
Nikolai Østergård: A Short Film About Faith, 2005
Orchestral score for T.H. Dreyer's silent movie Mikaël, 2003
Selected Orchestral scores

Double concerto English horn/ flute 2010
Viola concerto 2008
Hush: 2003
Entropia: 2001
Percussion concerto 1998
Violin concerto 1997
Piano concerto 1993
Liquid Rooms


Concerts / Stage Music / Collaborations
Concert with Danish singer, songwriter and visual artist Oh Land and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, sold out concerts in the Konzerthuset, 2013
Television shows with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and the Danish Radio Bigband in 2012, including collaborations with Danish and Nordic music artists
Easter 2013: Children's concert Bamse Komcerten with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, based on a text by Carl Quist Møller. It will be touring Danmark for the next couple of years, a TV version will appear separately
Orchestration for a film score by Johan Söderqvist, 2013
Album Release of the new Efterklang record Piramida, featuring Karsten Fundal's orchestral composition 'Vælv', as well as pieces by Katinka Fog-Vindlev, Peter Broderick, Copenhagen Phil and Missy Massoli. The record/concert is a result of an intense cooporation between Efterklang, Massoli and Karsten Fundal, 2012
Efterklang touring Europe, US and Australia with different local orchestras, 2012
Collaboration with Oh Land and the National Chamber Orchestra, 2012
Collaboration with Tina Dicow and the National Chamber Orchestra, including the concert film True North
Collaboration with the Choir of Young Believers and the National Chamber Orchestra: For the White in your Eyes, including a concert film, 2010
Collaboration with Efterklang and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra: Performing Parades, including a concert film, 2009
Collaboration with Under Byen and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, 2005
Music theatre composition 'Gonat min skat', commissioned by Folketatret

Awards
Carl Prisen 2016 for Best Classical Composition (small ensemble) together w/ Efterklang (Leaves - The Colour of Falling)
Jussi Award, Finnish Film Industry, 2012
Haakon Boerresen Award, 2009
Robert Award, Danish Film Academy, 2007
Work grant, Danish National Arts Council, 2005
Queen Ingrids Memorial Award, 2005
Carl Nielsen Award, 2005
Award of the Danish Composers' Society, 1995
Hvass Fond grant, 1995
Wilhelm Hansen Composer's Award, 1994

Reumert Award 2016, nomination for Opera of the Year (Leaves)
Carl Prisen 2016, nomination for Best Film Score (Bridgend)
Hong Kong Filmfestival 2012, nomination for Best Original Score (Excuse Me)
Norwegian Film Festival 2010, nomination for Kanon Award (Jernanger)
Danish Film Academy 2009, nomination for Best Original Score (Flame & Citron)

Unique traits: Orchestral scoring. mix of orchestral and electronics

Badges

Photos

Videos

Credits

  • Shadow World

    Shadow World (2016)
    Film (Documentary) Music department Based on the book of The Shadow World, this feature length documentary is an investigation into the multi-billion dollar international arms trade.

  • Fúsi

    Fúsi (2015)
    Film (Drama) Composer Fusi, a 43 years old man still lives with his mother. His daily life is characterized by one of the monotonous routine. The appearance of vibrant Alma and young Hera will upset his old bachelor habits.

  • Bridgend

    Bridgend (2015)
    Film (Drama) Composer "Bridgend" follows Sara and her dad, Dave as they arrive to a small village in Bridgend County. The village is haunted by suicides amongst its young inhabitants, and Sara falls dangerously in love with one of the teenagers, Jamie while Dave as the town's new policeman tries to stop the mysterious chain of suicides. The film is an uncompromising story focused on the relationship between vulnerable teenagers and their parents who are left in the dark. The story of the film is based on a mysterious suicide cluster that took place in Bridgend County, a small former coal-mining province in Wales. Between December 2007 and January 2012 seventy-nine suicides were officially committed in the area. Most of the victims were teenagers, they hanged themselves and left no suicide notes. Danish documentary filmmaker Jeppe Rønde followed the teenagers from the area for six years and wrote the script based on their life stories. Bridgend is Rønde's fiction film debut. It is entirely shot on location ...

  • The Visit

    The Visit (2015)
    Film (Documentary) Composer This documentary-style film shows how government agencies try to cope with human mankind's first contact with alien life.

  • Dannys dommedag

    Dannys dommedag (2014)
    Film (Adventure, Family and Romance) Composer Teenage brothers Danny and William agree on everything, but the mysterious and unknown predators attacking the City

  • Søn

    Søn (2014)
    Film (Short, Drama and Family) Composer SON is a character driven coming of age short film about 13-year-old August. August's mother is devastated by the recent divorce from his father, and refuses to let August keep the puppy his father gave him for his birthday. It hurts August to see his mother in pain, and he feels responsible for her, but he loves the little puppy as much as he misses his father. But August's illusions are soon shattered. SON is an unsentimental drama about ordinary life. August loses his childhood innocence, and the world he once knew changes radically, just like himself. Written by Anonymous

  • Fasandræberne

    Fasandræberne (2014)
    Film (Crime, Mystery and Thriller) Music department Rugged and irritable Carl Morck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and his colleague, the Syria-born Assad, run the cold-case division of the Copenhagen police. After a desperate appeal to Morck about the unsolved killing of his own teenage children, an ex-cop commits suicide. This leads the detective pair on a twisted mission to discover what really happened in the 1990s at one of the country's poshest boarding schools. Director Mikkel Norgaard reunites with lead stars Kaas and Fares to portray this taut fiction which again alternates deftly between the past and present.

  • Cathedrals of Culture

    Cathedrals of Culture (2014)
    Film (Documentary) Composer Six directors tackle the question "If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" by capturing iconic buildings with narration from the perspective of the buildings.

  • Kvinden i buret

    Kvinden i buret (2013)
    Film (Crime, Mystery and Thriller) Music department Chief detective Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad become involved in a five-year-old case concerning the mystery of politician Merete Lynggaard's disappearance - a journey that takes them deep into the undercurrent of abuse and malice that lurks beneath the polished surface of Scandinavia. Written by Zentropa Productions

  • Skogens Konge

    Skogens Konge (2012)
    Film (Short, Comedy, Drama and Mystery) Composer Jonathan has nothing but his solitude and his work as a moose, entertaining children in the local shopping mall. Both positions bring him little but desolation, as will the animal fur fetishist Isabelle after a brief time of ecstasy. Seduced by Isabelle, Jonathan falls in love with no hope of more than wild animal sex in his moose costume. The lonely man settles for the continued lack of love and plays the role the woman desires. His new and exciting life ends dramatically when Easter comes around and the moose is transformed into a chicken. A tragicomic silent movie that investigates romantic relationships between human animals in modern times. A tragicomic silent film that investigates romantic relationships between human animals in modern times. Written by Anonymous

  • Säilöttyjä unelmia

    Säilöttyjä unelmia (2012)
    Film (Documentary and Drama) Composer Canned Dreams is a film about workers and their dreams on the journey of a canned food product.

  • Undskyld jeg forstyrrer

    Undskyld jeg forstyrrer (2012)
    Film (Comedy and Drama) Composer Add a Plot »

  • The Act of Killing

    The Act of Killing (2012)
    Film (Documentary, Biography, Crime and History) Soundtrack A documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.

  • Julie

    Julie (2011)
    Film (Drama) Composer Julie, a young passionate tennis star, falls in love with her trainer. She longs for love and affirmation, but also to be able to free herself from the demands of her ambitious and bankrupt father. It all turns into a power game that she will lose control of, and that have consequences that she never could have imagined. Written by Pontefix

  • Hunted

    Hunted (2010)
    Film (Short and Thriller) Composer George (42) jolts into consciousness, blindfolded and bound. Unmasked, he sees Maritza (25) the girl that he had a sexual relationship with twelve years ago, when she was only thirteen. As the film unfolds, the 'master' oscillates between the two as each progressively revert to their familiar roles. Maritza starts as the dominating seductress. However George, in his threatened position, manages to gain control by pushing those boundaries that only he intimately knows, forcing Maritza to regress to that thirteen year old child as before. Maritza, confesses her love for George as a last resort. With no more barriers between them, Maritza is liberated by the realisation that George never loved her. George in turn is hit by the full weight of his actions. Written by Natalie Fellowes

  • Into Eternity: A Film for the Future

    Into Eternity: A Film for the Future (2010)
    Film (Documentary) Composer A documentary on the safety of nuclear storage.

  • Blekingegade

    Blekingegade (2009 - 2010)
    Television (Crime) Composer Add a Plot »

  • The Storm in My Heart

    The Storm in My Heart (2009)
    Film (Drama) Composer Jernanger is a tale about the tempered Eivind who isn't scared of anything- except love. Eivind, lives aboard a boat in the South of Norway. The boat lies low and lopsided in the water. Thirty years ago Eivind left his homestead and his teenage sweetheart behind, and he has not been back since. He was meant to go back when everything was honky-dory- only that never happened. Then young Kris appears. He wants to travel the world but didn't get any longer than to the lifeboat of Jernanger. The to men finds one another and together they hatch a great plan . Written by Maria Ekerhovd

  • Produktionsdagbog: Prag - Berlin - København

    Produktionsdagbog: Prag - Berlin - København (2008)
    Video (Documentary) Composer Add a Plot »

  • Flame and Citron

    Flame and Citron (2008)
    Film (Drama, History, Thriller and War) Composer During Nazi occupation, red-headed Bent Faurschou-Hviid ("Flame") and Jørgen Haagen Schmith ("Citron"), assassins in the Danish resistance, take orders from Winther, who's in direct contact with Allied leaders. One shoots, the other drives. Until 1944, they kill only Danes; then Winther gives orders to kill Germans. When a target tells Bent that Winther's using them to settle private scores, doubt sets in, complicated by Bent's relationship with the mysterious Kitty Selmer, who may be a double agent. Also, someone in their circle is a traitor. Can Bent and Jørgen kill an über-target, evade capture, and survive the war? And is this heroism, naiveté, or mere hatred? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>

  • Kunsten at græde i kor

    Kunsten at græde i kor (2006)
    Film (Comedy and Drama) Composer Follows a precocious, eleven-year-old Allan, who tries desperately to keep his dysfunctional, rural family together during the social upheavals of the early seventies. Allan reveres his father, Henry, the local milkman, and can't understand why others don't feel the same way. His family life is so twisted he thinks it's perfectly normal to stay awake all night dealing with his father's hysterics and suicidal threats. Allan's older brother left town several years ago, and his mother gave up long before that, relying on sleeping pills to escape Henry's tantrums. Allan then becomes obsessed with a rival family, whom he considers foolish white trash until they start taking away Henry's customers. He is frustrated that his mother doesn't take his father's complaints seriously, and is perplexed by the increasingly rebellious and bizarre behavior of his sister, Sanne. Incapable of understanding what's going on and heavily influenced by his father, Allan commits appalling acts, unaware of ... Written by Anonymous

Awards

  • Jussi Award Finland
    (2012)

  • Robert award Best music denmark, the art of crying.
    (2006)

Education

  • royal danish conservatory
    (1984-1988)

  • royal conservatory den haag holland
    (1984-1988)

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