1. Morten Johannes Lauridsen III was born on February 27,1943 and is an American composer and teacher.
11 Facts About Morten Lauridsen
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Morten Lauridsen attended Whitman College for 2 years, before traveling south to study composition at the University of Southern California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen.
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In 2006, Morten Lauridsen was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Morten Lauridsen's works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations, including O Magnum Mysterium by the Tiffany Consort, A Company of Voices by Conspirare, Sound The Bells by The Bay Brass, and two all-Lauridsen discs entitled Lux Aeterna by the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Paul Salamunovich and Nocturnes with the Polyphony choir and the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Stephen Layton.
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In late February 2020, via an update on his Facebook page, Morten Lauridsen revealed he had retired from the Thornton School of Music in the spring of 2019, after having taught classes there for over 50 years.
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Morten Lauridsen's music has an overall lyricism and is tightly constructed around melodic and harmonic motifs.
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Over 200 recordings of works by Morten Lauridsen have been released, including five that have received Grammy nominations.
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Morten Lauridsen is currently one of America's most performed composers, with hundreds of performances each year throughout the world in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Vatican, Sydney Opera House, and Westminster Abbey.
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Recordings of Morten Lauridsen's compositions are featured regularly on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, and he is a frequent interview guest on radio and television programs, including a KCET Life and Times program, the national broadcast of "A Portrait of Morten Lauridsen" on First Art, and a nationally broadcast Christmas Day feature on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon.
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Morten Lauridsen has been profiled in several extended articles, including in the Los Angeles Times "Calendar", Seattle Times, Choral Journal, Choir and Organ, Chorus America's Voice, Fanfare Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal.
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The 2012 documentary film Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen portrays the composer at his Waldron Island retreat and in rehearsals in California and Scotland.