Lars Klit (b. 1965), Danish composer
Klit was born in Thy, Jutland, and began his musical career with the electric guitar and the piano as his main instruments. He began his studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in 1985, majoring with professor Ib Nørholm. At that time his music was subject to many influences, of which Igor Stravinsky and Per Nørgård came to have the most decisive bearing on his fundamental musical style.
In the years 1985-87 Klit began to show an interest in the aspect of the compositional process that focuses on the concept of sound. Stravinsky’s rhythmics combined with Per Nørgård’s infinity series gave rise to a style that led his development in the direction of the French Spectral School. From this point, Klit developed towards a spectral paradigm where chords and sound came to play a greater role than before in his production. A key work from this period is EVER ON DRY LAND (1991).
Then an event took place which was to have great impact on Klit’s career – the commission of the chamber opera THE LAST VIRTUOSO. The chamber opera is also based on the spectral paradigm. The unusual instrumentation of the work, with its use of quarter-tone scordatura on the violin, led to it being noted outside Denmark.
In 1999 the opera had its first international production in Berlin under the title DER LETZTE VIRTUOSE, at the Berlin Chamber Opera. This was followed by productions at the Staatstheater Darmstadt in the year 2000 and at Theater Regensburg in 2012. In the period from 1989 to 2012 Klit has composed seven operas, and he is currently working on an opera commission from outside Denmark for the first time. Parallel to the operas he has continued his chamber production, of which CALEIDOSCOPIO DEL DUENDECILLO from 2012 is an example worth mentioning.