Composer | Edvard Helsted

A Danish composer and concertmaster, Edvard Helsted was born 8 December 1816 in Copenhagen, Denmark into an artistically inclined family; his brother, Carl, would also become a composer. Helsted trained as a violinist and found employment with the Royal Danish Orchestra from 1838 to 1869, initially as an orchestra member and from 1863 as a concertmaster and rehearsal conductor. As a teacher, he instructed piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1869 to 1890. He was knighted into the Order of the Dannebrog in 1866, and appointed professor in 1890.

As a composer, Helsted created the music for many of August Bournonville’s ballets: Imagination Island (1838), with others: Toreador (1840); Napoli (1842), with Niels W. Gade and Holger Simon Paulli; Kirsten Piil (1845); Old Memories (1848); Psyche (1850); and The Flower Festival in Genzano (1858), with Paulli. He also contributed music to various plays – for example, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Bird in the Pear Tree (1842) – and wrote a number of youth songs. Helsted died 1 March 1900 in Fredensborg, Denmark; he is buried at Asminderød Cemetery.