Simon Steen-Andersen (b. 1976) is a Berlin-based composer, performer and installation artist, working in the field between instrumental music, electronics, video and performance within settings ranging from symphony orchestra and chamber music (with and without multimedia) to stagings, solo performances and installations. His work from the last decade concentrates on integrating concrete elements into music and emphasizing the physical and choreographic aspects of an instrumental performance. His works often include amplified acoustic instruments in combination with samplers, video, simple everyday objects or homemade constructions.
Simon Steen-Andersen has received numerous prizes and grants – the latest are the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize and the Siemens Composer’s Prize 2017, the Nordic Council Music Prize and the SWR Orchestra Prize 2014, the Carl Nielsen Prize (DK) and the Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Kunste in Berlin 2013, the International Rostrum of Composers, the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm Residency 2010 and the Kranichsteiner Music Award 2008. He is a member of the German Academy of the Arts 2016. His works are commissioned by ensembles, orchestras and festivals such as ensemble recherche, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, the SWR Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, Ensemble Ascolta, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, 2e2m, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ultraschall, Wittener Days of New Chamber Music and ECLAT. Furthermore worked with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, ICTUS, Arditti, London Sinfonietta, Intercontemporain, asamisimasa and NADAR.
Simon Steen-Andersen studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde and Bent Sorensen in Aarhus, Freiburg, Buenos Aires and Copenhagen 1998–2006. Since 2008, Simon Steen-Andersen is a lecturer of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. From 2013-2014, he was a visiting professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, from 2014–2016, he was lecturer at the Darmstadt Sommer Courses, and in 2017, he was a guest professor at University of the Arts in Berlin. Most of his works are published by Edition-S / Copenhagen.