Learn more about Johan Kvandal and his works by reading excerpts from newspaper articles and anniversary publications. Please take a look at the reviews too.

My old pedagogue Nadia Boulanger once said: “The geniouses were great musicians. Without knowing it. But posterity knows that they also touched the mysterious”. This is how I regard the non-material in our existence, says Kvandal on the occasion of his 70th Anniversary.

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When today’s Music Norway occupies a natural place on the international map, it is due not only to orchestras and larger ensembles, but to many of our composers` capacities and efforts. The now 75-year-old Johan Kvandal keeps a natural place here.

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Some talents are precocious and reach fame early. Others gain their greatest successes later in life. Johan Kvandal  belongs to the latter cathegory. After entering the retirement age he is more sought-after, diligently performed and popular than ever before. Tomorrow, the composer celebrates his 75th birthday. Continue reading

Finally, the Norwegian composer Johan Kvandal (78), one of Norway’s most performed composers has fulfilled his long time dream of having his most important works recorded. He has worked on the case for a long time and finally decided, almost in protest, to use a Russian orchestra.

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By the beginning of the 50s there was still a scent of fairytales, of Asbjørnsen and Moe, of Halfdan Egedius and Arne Garborg in the hills of Bærum. The occasional battle cry from Henrik Sørensen could still be heard in the landscape. The train to Slependen station took the novice right back to the golden age in Norwegian music, literature and art. Up the hill, and at the gate to no. 21 in Gyssestadkollen, one suddenly stood at the threshold of the fairy castle Soria Moria.

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