He grew up in a musical family and from early on showed compositional ambitions (his song Nat, “Night”, was performed in 1906). After finishing school he studied piano in Berlin with Teresa Carreño and Conrad Ansorge and composition with Wilhelm Klatte (1907-14). He spent eight years touring in Norway and abroad (amongst others as accompanist for Kirsten Flagstad and Marian Anderson) and held the position of bandmaster (“kapellmester”) at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen for 25 years (1932-57). At the same time, he regularly conducted the Harmonien orchestra and choir and wrote concert reviews. Many of his 85 compositions where published in Leipzig. 1918-1949 married to actress Magda Blanc (1879-1959) and since 1949 to actress Nina Sandvik (1920-1996), who had been a member of Halvdan Christensen’s exile theater company Fri Norsk Scene.
