Mads Emil Dreyer
Photo: David Stjernholm

Mads Emil Dreyer

(1986-)

Like glistening sculptures, Mads Emil Dreyer’s music exists as much in its own sure forms as in the listener’s individual response to them. His music creates conscious hinterlands in which detailed, focused sounds can be observed, like an artwork unfolding in time. His versatility and flexibility have made him a favourite on Copenhagen’s new music scene and far beyond it.  

As interested in knobs and buttons as violins and flutes, Mads Emil Dreyer often sets up a dialogue between electroacoustic and acoustic entities. His music might use electronics to blur tonal harmonies, mimic acoustic sounds or place a fog around regimented instrumental robotics. Sometimes, electronics are deployed to counterbalance music with vision, presenting sound and image as two sides of the same process. 

Lightness and brightness, beauty and poetry, are all over Dreyer’s works. A characteristic method is to use minimal themes gently repeated or painstakingly metamorphosed. Radiant explorations of timbre might be used to distract from a neat, diatonic harmonic process. Shapely songs or lullabies might be stretched over deep electroacoustic throbbing or long drones. 

Mads Emil Dreyer’s music has been credited in the press for its humanity, beauty, technical discipline and aesthetic focus. He has written for, among others, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Adapter, Athelas Sinfoniettta and Neue Vocalsolisten and is a founding member and house composer of the contemporary music group NEKO3. 

Mads Emil Dreyer studied composition at advanced postgraduate level at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where his teachers included Hans Abrahamsen, Bent Sørensen and Niels Rosing-Schow. He also read humanities at the University of Copenhagen and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2019, he received the Carl Nielsen and Anne-Marie Carl Nielsen Talent Prize.

Available Works

All categories Solo 2-6 Instruments 7+ Instruments Choir Orchestra

  1. Figure Pieces

    2025 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    20 minutes

    For to slagtøjsspillere

  2. Chimera pt. 2

    2024 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    13 minutes

    for solo performer controlling eight toy accordion instruments

  3. Repeater, quietus

    2024 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    37 minutes

    Solo performer controlling four singing bowls and four frame drums

  4. Three Interludes

    2024 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    8 minutes

    For flute, clarinet, and electronics

  5. Interlude

    2024 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    Bass flute, keyboard, organ, and electronics

  6. Figure 1

    2023 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    16 minutes

    Percussion solo

  7. Miniature 6

    2023 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    11 minutes

    Accordion and cello

  8. Figure 2

    2023 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    16 minutes

    Two percussionists

  9. Chimera pt. 1

    2023 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    6:30 minutes

    Three performers

  10. Apparitions

    2023 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    7+ Instruments

    22 minutes

    Flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano

  11. Miniature 5

    2022 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    20 minutes

    Cl, vln, pno, perc, electronics

  12. Vessel

    2019 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    7+ Instruments

    7 minutes

    Flute, tenor saxophone, vibraphone, and four synthesizers

  13. Miniature 4

    2022 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    14 minutes

    Two performers playing a miniature glockenspiel, a guitarlele, two melodicas and two MIDI keyboards

  14. Voix Celeste

    2020 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    7 minutes

    String quartet, percussion and MIDI keyboard

  15. Vidder 6

    2016 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Choir

    9 minutes

    Chamber choir

  16. Vidder 5

    2018 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    7 minutes

    Five solo vocalists

  17. Miniature 2

    2021 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    10 minutes

    Three performers

  18. Miniature 1

    2021 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    17 minutes

    Four performers

  19. Lys 6

    2021 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    15 minutes

    Sine wave synthesizer and light bulbs

  20. Vidder 4

    2016 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    12 minutes

    Harmonium, organ, and live electronics

  21. Vidder 1

    2016 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    11 minutes

    Bass flute and live electronics

  22. Lys 4

    2017 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    9 minutes

    Sine wave synthesizers and light bulbs

  23. Lys 3

    2017 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    12 minutes

    Crotales, 16 light bulbs and electronics

  24. Forsvindere 2

    2018 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    9 minutes

    Glockenspiel, crotales, vibraphone, celesta, and electronics

  25. Forsvindere 1

    2017 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    2-6 Instruments

    10 minutes

    Glockenspiel, crotales, vibraphone, celesta, and electronics

  26. Bølger

    2014 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Solo

    13 minutes

    Video and sine wave synthesizer

  27. Miniature 3

    2021 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    7+ Instruments

    14 minutes

    Sinfonietta and electronics

  28. Vidder 7

    2016 • Mads Emil Dreyer

    Orchestra

    11:15 minutes

    3.3.3.3/4.3.3.1/3 perc/clst/16.14.12.10.8




Advanced works search

News

  1. Mads Emil Dreyer: Entering the Domain of the String Quartet

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Entering the Domain of the String Quartet

  2. Mads Emil Dreyer's music presented at artistic research festival

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer's music presented at artistic research festival

  3. Great reviews for Mads Emil Dreyer's Figure Pieces

    reviews

    Great reviews for Mads Emil Dreyer's Figure Pieces

  1. Gísladóttir, Holmen, Hodkinson, Dreyer and Bergner in NYC

    general

    Gísladóttir, Holmen, Hodkinson, Dreyer and Bergner in NYC

  2. Contemporary Choral Works

    general

    Contemporary Choral Works

  3. Three upcoming world premieres by Mads Emil Dreyer

    general

    Three upcoming world premieres by Mads Emil Dreyer

  4. A Song of Salt and Water shortlisted for OPUS KLASSIK

    nominations / awards

    A Song of Salt and Water shortlisted for OPUS KLASSIK

  5. SPOR Festival

    general

    SPOR Festival

  6. Mads Emil Dreyer album release and concert

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer album release and concert

  7. World premieres by Mads Emil Dreyer and Jexper Holmen

    general

    World premieres by Mads Emil Dreyer and Jexper Holmen

  8. Mads Emil Dreyer: Bright sounds in the darkness of the Baroque

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Bright sounds in the darkness of the Baroque

  9. World premiere of Apparitions by Mads Emil Dreyer

    general

    World premiere of Apparitions by Mads Emil Dreyer

  10. Work Grants from the Danish Arts Foundation 2023

    nominations / awards

    Work Grants from the Danish Arts Foundation 2023

  11. Three Mads Emil Dreyer world premieres

    general

    Three Mads Emil Dreyer world premieres

  12. Mads Emil Dreyer at IRCAM Forum

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer at IRCAM Forum

  13. Mads Emil Dreyer World Premiere

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer World Premiere

  14. Work Grants from the Danish Arts Foundation

    general

    Work Grants from the Danish Arts Foundation

  15. Mads Emil Dreyer performances in London

    general

    Mads Emil Dreyer performances in London

  16. Edition·S at Nordic Music Days

    general

    Edition·S at Nordic Music Days

  17. World premieres at SPOR festival

    general

    World premieres at SPOR festival

  18. Reviews · KLANG Festival 2021

    reviews

    Reviews · KLANG Festival 2021

  19. Mads Emil Dreyer Interview (UK)

    interviews

    Mads Emil Dreyer Interview (UK)

  20. Editions publishes works by Mads Emil Dreyer

    releases

    Editions publishes works by Mads Emil Dreyer

  21. Significant work grants for Edition·S composers

    nominations / awards

    Significant work grants for Edition·S composers

  22. 5-star review of Pulsar opening concert

    general

    5-star review of Pulsar opening concert

  23. PULSAR: Interviews with three composition students

    general

    PULSAR: Interviews with three composition students

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Performances

  1. September 2025
  2. 7

    September

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Music Box Music 1: Lament

    time19:00

    location Helsinki Music Centre, Finland

    performed by Kalle Hakosalo

  3. 24

    September

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Doldrums, inertia

    location Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin, Germany

    performed by JACK Quartet

  4. 26

    September

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Miniature 2

    time17:00

    location KoncertKirken, Copenhagen, Denmark

    performed by Curious Chamber Players

  1. October 2025
  2. 10

    October

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Lys 4

    location Malmö, Sweden

    performed by Lorenzo Colombo and Marta Soggetti

  3. 18

    October

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Repeater, quietus

    location Milan, Italy

    performed by Lorenzo Colombo

  1. January 2026
  2. 12

    January

    Mads Emil Dreyer: Miniature 1

    location Café OTO, London, United Kingdom

    performed by SCENATET

  1. February 2026
  2. 15

    February

    Mads Emil Dreyer: New Work

    location Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Denmark

    performed by Danish Chamber Orchetra