Biography Long
Anders Beyer is experienced senior executive and board professionel. He was CEO and Artistic Director of Bergen International Festival 2012-2021. Beyer joined the Bergen International Festival in 2012 after four years as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Copenhagen Opera Festival. Prior to this, the Festival’s Danish director was also CEO and Artistic Director of the contemporary music ensemble Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and Athelas New Music Festival.
Beyer’s career embraces artistic leadership within all art forms. He has a solid record as a commissioner of new music, theatre and dance projects, and of developing major programming initiatives in collaboration with a number of the world’s leading artists, performing groups and arts centres.
During his time in Bergen, he has presented productions with directors and choreographers including Peter Konwitschny, Robert Wilson, Robert Lepage, Vegard Vinge & Ida Müller, Sasha Waltz, Kim Brandstrup, Alan Lucien Øyen, Christoph Marthaler and Calixto Bieito.
Throughout his career, Beyer has worked closely with composers of our time and has been responsible for numerous commissions. He has achieved significant results with projects together with composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Unsuk Chin, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Sofia Gubaidulina, Per Nørgård and Kaija Saariaho.
Beyer began his professional career as a pianist, and started performing, recording and touring as a soloist and accompanist in his teens. He studied music and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and graduated in Musical Science in 1985, after which he worked as a lecturer at the university. While teaching at the university, Beyer also worked as music editor and critic at the newspaper Dagbladet Information from (1995–2004). He was editor of Dansk Musik Tidsskrift (Danish Music Review) (1989–2007) and the magazine Nordic Sounds (1993–2006). Beyer’s knowledge of, and indeed his passion for, European musical culture have resulted in a large number of books, articles in international periodicals, and translations of German musicology.
Anders Beyer was Professor II, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, and member of the committee of The International Ibsen Award, Oslo.
However varied Beyer’s cultural work has been, it has always been fueled by his will to explore new ways of presenting art to audiences. According to Beyer, the ground rule for winning present-day audiences over is aiming to present the most sublime art, performed by the greatest performers. The key words are professionalism, commitment, dialogue, and challenge.
Beyer has shown that collaboration across the divides of culture and genre, as well as the establishment of networks and alliances between institutions working within the same area, can produce tremendous and significant results.
During his first tenure as Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Bergen International Festival, Beyer launched a turnaround for the festival, giving it a new visual identity and achieving a 100% increase in first-time visitors, resulting in the highest volume of ticket sales in the festival’s recorded history.