"Christian Sinding" has been added to your list of bookmarked artists
close
Christian Sinding
January 11, 1856 - December 3, 1941
born in Kongsberg, Norway, composed during the Romantic period
Biography
Christian August Sinding studied music in addition to his academic studies throughout his school years, taking violin with Gudbrand Bøhn and music theory with L.M. Lindeman, one of the most important musicians in Christiana (later renamed Oslo). In 1874 he followed the path of his famous countryman Edvard Grieg by going to Leipzig to study. There, his violin teacher was Schradieck and his theory and composition teacher was Jadassohn. It became obvious that his major talent was for composition, so he gave up his violin studies in favor of it.

He remained primarily in Germany for a total of 40 years, but retained Norwegian elements in his music. The Norwegian government gave him regular grants from 1880, which were made into an annual pension in 1910. In 1916 the Norwegian government recognized him with a grant of 30,000 crowns, in recognition of his being the "greatest national composer since Grieg." He taught at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, in the 1920 - 1921 academic year. After that he settled in Oslo and remained centered in Norway for the rest of his long life.

His music is tuneful, attractive, well-orchestrated, and distinctive, but as far as technique is concerned he was not an innovator.