BIOGRAPHY
One of the most frequently performed contemporary choral composers, Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980), is a classical musician from Trondheim, Norway. Although an avid follower of MTV and a huge fan of The Cure at ten years old, he also studied classical piano, was a chorister in the Nidaros Cathedral Boys’ Choir and was later educated at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. With deep interests in baroque, contemporary classical, and popular music, his musical career could have taken many roads...but choral music became his greatest passion.
Kim's first large work MAGNIFICAT was commissioned and premiered by the Nidaros Cathedral Girls' Choir. The work was recorded and released by 2L in 2014 and received rave reviews in many classical music magazines, among them Gramophone and Choir & Organ. The album was nominated for the Grammy Awards for 'Best surround recording'. Gramophone calls his music 'haunting, beautifully arched, warmly compassionate'. His second album, 'Infinity: Choral Works' (Naxos), released January 2018, climbed to the No. 2 best-selling classical albums on iTunes, No. 6 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums Charts.
Among his most popular and globally performed choral works are works like EVEN WHEN HE IS SILENT, CRADLE HYMN, and FLIGHT SONG. His music has sold in 6 figure numbers and has been performed in more than 50 countries.
Other large works includes his REQUIEM FOR SOLACE commissioned by the Nidaros Cathedral Boys' Choir in 2014. THE WOUND IN THE WATER was commissioned by the St. Olaf Festival in Trondheim and was premiered by Conspirare, Elin Manahan Thomas and conductor Craig Hella Johnson in 2016. The National Lutheran Choir commissioned and premiered Kim's HOLY SPIRIT MASS in commemoration of the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The European premiere of the work was given in Rome at the opening of the 2018 International Festival of Sacred Music and Art. TUVAYHUN - BEATITUDES FOR A WOUNDED WORLD was commissioned and premiered by the Manhattan Girls Chorus and conductor Michelle Oesterle in 2018. The work is being released on CD in 2022. NORDIC CHRISTMAS is a collection of Kim's arrangements of Nordic Christmas carols and was commissioned and premiered by VocalEssence and Philip Brunelle in 2019. His STABAT MATER was commissioned and premiered by Haderslev Cathedral Girls’ Choir in Denmark in 2020, and NORDLYS for the World Choral Fest 2020.
In 2020 and and 2021 Kim released his first piano music on Decca Classics. One of the singles, 'Winter Moon' reached No. 1 on Apple Music's classical charts. In 2022 his latest large work THE STRANGER was commissioned and premiered by the Together in Hope Choir as the opening concert of the St. Olaf Festival in Trondheim.
Kim is an elected member of the Norwegian Composers Society. In 2017, he signed with Boosey & Hawkes as a house composer.
