KARSTEN ANDERSEN

Born: February 16th, 1920, Fredrikstadt (Norway)

Died: December 15th, 1997, Oslo (Norway)

Nationality: Norwegian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Karsten Andersen studied at the Oslo Musikkonservatorium and made his debut as a violinist in 1939. During the war years, he was a member of the Filharmonisk Selskaps Orkester in Oslo. In 1947, he spent a year in Siena, Italy, to study at the Accademia Chigiana.

Between 1945 and 1964, Andersen lived in Stavanger, where he was the conductor of the Stavanger Byorkester, a classical orchestra, as well as the musical director of the entertainment orchestra of the local NRK broadcasting station. In 1964, Andersen took up the job of conductor of the Musikkselskabet Harmonien (the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra), which he would fulfil for more than twenty years, moreover functioning as the ensemble’s artistic director from 1966 onwards. Between 1970 and 1976, he also was the principal conductor of the Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands (the Iceland Symphony Orchestra). Over the years, Andersen made appearances as a guest conductor with various renowned ensembles abroad, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London) and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Between 1985 and 1988, the year he retired from music, he was a professor and musical director at the Norges Musikkhøgskole, co-founding a youth orchestra, the Ungdomssymfonikerne (in collaboration with Leif Jørgensen and Harry Kvebaek). During his career, Karsten Andersen composed some modern classical works. For his services to Norwegian music, he was rewarded with the Norsk Kulturråds Musikkpris (1974) and the Norske Stats Kunstnerpris (1975).

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Karsten Andersen made one appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1964, when he replaced the regular Norwegian conductor of those years, Øivind Bergh; at that time, Bergh was in the United States for reasons of study. Andersen, in one of his lasts assignments for NRK (he resigned later in 1964 to work for the Harmonien in Bergen), conducted ‘Spiral’, a song composed by Sigurd Jansen and arranged by Carsten Klouman. Interpreted by Arne Bendiksen, this effort came eighth in a field of sixteen entries. Jansen, Klouman, and Bendiksen all returned to the contest as conductors of Norwegian Eurovision entries in their own right later onwards.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1964 Copenhagen

Country – Norway

Song title – "Spiral"

Rendition – Arne Bendiksen

Lyrics – Egil Hagen

Composition – Sigurd Jansen

Studio arrangement – Carsten Klouman

Live orchestration – Carsten Klouman

Conductor – Karsten Andersen

Score – 8th place (6 votes)