Gisle Kverndokk studied composition at The Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo and at The Juilliard School in New York City.
He has an extensive production of musical theatre. With librettist Øystein Wiik, he has written 14 musicals and operas performed extensively in Norway, Germany, Austria and the USA. Their first collaboration was “Sophie’s World”, premiered at The Ettlingen Schlossfestspiele in 1998. “Martin L.” (2008) was nominated for The Nordic Council’s Music Prize. The opera “Around the world in 80 days” was commissioned for the opening of the new Opera House in Oslo and premiered there in May 2010. A new version was presented at Landestheater Linz, Austria, in 2016, and won 6 awards at the German Musical Theatre Awards, including Best Musical. The musical “The Name of the Rose” was a big success at The Domstufen Festspiele, Erfurt, in 2019. “Trolle unter uns” was premiered at Luisenburg Festspiel in 2021, and “Fanny und Alexander” was premiered at Landestheater Linz in 2022. “Soga om Sol” was premiered at Opera Nordfjord, Norway,in October -23.
All the major orchestras in Norway have performed his works, among them The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 1999-2000 season he was “Composer of the year” with The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 he won The Juilliard Composers Competition, and in 1993 the 1. prize for composers under 30 at the Paris ROSTRUM. His Harp Concerto was premiered in January 2024, by the National Symphony Orchestra of Maribor, Slovenia, with Ursula Ascic as soloist. Kverndokk was awarded “Composer of the Year” at the Norwegian Publishers’ Awards, 2019.