Niels Viggo Bentzon

Niels Viggo Bentzon was a pianist, organist and a self-taught composer. Bentzon was the great-grandson of J.P.E. Hartmann (who was again a grandson of Johan Hartmann) and cousin of composer Jørgen Bentzon. He was the pupil of Knud Jeppesen and Emilius Bangert and was a teacher at the Conservatory of Aarhus from 1945 and later, from 1949, at the Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen. As a lecturer and concert pianist, he was an active promoter of contemporary music. His comprehensive output – mainly of instrumental music – belongs to the international concert repertoire. His works include ballet, symphonies, piano concertos, violin concerto, orchestral and chamber music, piano music, incidental music for radio and stage, and for films. Bentzon was also an active music-literary writer.