Edvard Grieg is Norway's greatest composer from the national romantic era. Amongst his most well-known works are "Peer Gynt, Op. 23 Nr. 8” (AKA "In the Hall of the Mountain King") and "Peer Gynt Suite No.1" (AKA "Morning Mood"), but especially his “Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 16.” He brought the Norwegian folk music to the international scene as well as being an important character in the creation of the Norwegian national identity up until the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905. His works are a part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide.
In 1603 the Scottish clan bearing the name of McGregor were banned by king James VI from using this name, and therefore changed it to Grig, Greig and such. Edvard's great-grandfather came to Bergen, Norway in 1770 where he had great success with his exporting business. Edvard's father and grandfather were along with his great-grandfather British consuls in Bergen simultaneously as running the export business.
Edvard Grieg was child number four out of five, and regularly got piano-lessons from his mother. He studied music in Leipzig from 1858 and graduated with flying colours. Debuted as a pianist in Sweden in 1861 and in 1863 he went to Copenhagen where he got inspired to write new music that henceforth would change the Nordic music. In 1869/70 he went to Rome where he met quite a few well-known artists as of today. Henrik Ibsen offered Grieg the job of composing music for his piece “Peer Gynt” even though Grieg’s own harsh critique of the whole piece, which ended in great success.
During his last years, his health worsened and at last he died of "Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" in 1907.
