Studied organ, piano, music theory and composition at the Oslo Music Conservatory (1948-52) and with Karl Andersen, Bjarne Brustad, Conrad Baden and Vagn Holmboe (in
Copenhagen, 1955). From 1960 to 1968 he worked as a music-critic for several magazines and newspapers such as Dagbladet
in Oslo. As a composer he has worked in Sweden, Denmark,Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States and other countries.
Since 1974 he has been president of the Norwegian Composers' Association.
On his music
His earliest works are clearly influenced by Bartók, but via free tonality, he has developed into a more avant-garde direction
since around 1960, eliminating almost all rhythmic and melodic elements in his music, leaving a highly sensitive and sophisticated
concentration of sound, where timbre is the keyword. In many of his works from the late sixties Nordheim integrates this with the
medium of electronics.
The use of modernism in his music is never a revolutuonary break with the past. Even though his mode of expression sounds quite
radical most of the time, his music is deeply rooted in the western European music tradition.
Principal Works
1954 - String quartet "Essay"
1956 - String quartet
1956 - Nachruf, strings
1957 - Rendez-vous, strings
1957 - Evening Land, soprano and orchestra
1960 - Canzona per orchestra, orchestra
1961 - Music for radio-reading of Le Petit Prince, electronic music
1962 - Catharsis, ballet, orchestra and tape
1963 - Epitaffio, orchestra and tape
1966 - Response I, 2 percussion-groups and tape
1967 - Signals, electric guitar, accordion and percussion
