I’m deeply humbled and thrilled to share that I am one of the recipients of the Carl Nielsen Prize 2025— one of Denmark’s most prestigious honors in music.

This recognition is especially meaningful as I am the first accordionist to receive this award. It’s a milestone not just for me personally, but also for the instrument and its growing place within the world of classical and contemporary music.

Over the years, I’ve had the great pleasure of engaging deeply with Carl Nielsen’s music — arranging and transcribing a number of his works for the accordion. This includes new orchestrations for the Danish Chamber Players and MYTHOS -accordion duo of pieces such as the Helios Overture, Saga-Drøm, the Aladdin Suite, and a selection of piano pieces. Bringing Nielsen’s sound world into new contexts has been both a challenge and a joy.

My heartfelt thanks to the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation, to the composers, collaborators, and audiences who continually inspire me, and to everyone who has supported this journey.

This award is a powerful reminder of the accordion’s expressive potential, and I’m excited to keep pushing its boundaries. Some years back MYTHOS released a recording of my duo-arrangement of the magnificent Helios Overture which you can give a listen on all major platforms:

As part of the celebration, there will be a prize ceremony and concert on October 24, where I will perform as soloist with the Odense Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Brad Lubman. I’m very much looking forward to performing with Brad again, following our first collaboration in 2014 for the Danish premiere of Christian Winther Christensen’s Double Concerto for Cello and Accordion with the Danish National Symphony.

A huge congrats as well to fellow recipients composers Kirstine Lindemann, Signe Lykke, and Bára Gísladóttir; and fellow musicians Michala Petri and Stephen Milling.

New Release!

Winter Steps and Summer Skies
I’m thrilled to share the release of a new album, Winter Steps and Summer Skies – a project born from deep collaboration with my long-time duo partner, the exceptional cellist Toke Møldrup. Alongside visionary producers Jesper Andersen and Oscar Miccaelson, and with the support of a remarkable team of contributors, we’ve brought together music that we feel defines a distinct and powerful thread in Danish contemporary composition.

This album is a tribute to a lineage of Danish composers whose work has shaped and continues to challenge the way we think about sound. It features works by Per Nørgård, Ole Buck, Svend Nielsen, Karl Aage Rasmussen, Niels Rosing-Schow, Simon Steen-Andersen, Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen, and Christian Winther Christensen — voices that span over five decades of chamber music writing, from 1973 to 2024.

About the Album
At the heart of this recording is the interplay between cello and accordion — two instruments that, while not often paired, form an unexpected and deeply expressive sonic landscape. Several of these pieces are world premieres, written specifically for our duo, and together they offer a journey through the shifting aesthetics of Danish composition: from lyrical introspection to raw, textural experimentation.

Winter Steps and Summer Skies is not only a documentation of our commissioned repertoire, but also reflecting a artistic partnership between Toke and I— one that has grown out of a shared curiosity for the new, the complex, and the beautiful.

We’ll be sharing excerpts at upcoming concerts, and signed physical copies will be available as well as online on all major platforms. In August 2025 the release will be accompanied by a series of live events across Denmark performing works from the album..

Whether you’re a longtime enthusiast of contemporary Danish music or a curious listener ready to explore, we invite you join us on this transformative musical journey.

— Bjarke

Nikolaj Lund