Lars Ulrik Mortensen

Lars Ulrich Mortensen first gained recognition for his performances of Baroque solo and chamber repertoire on the harpsichord, while simultaneously pursuing a parallel career directing both orchestral and operatic works. Born on 9 November 1955 in Esbjerg, Denmark, he began piano lessons at the age of three, participated in the Danish Radio Boys’ Choir, and attended a secondary school that permitted a specialized music curriculum. He continued his training at the Royal Danish Academy of Music under harpsichord instructor Karen Englund, yet his interests extended equally to conducting; to develop both skills he spent time in London studying with Trevor Pinnock. Between 1988 and 1990 he served as harpsichordist with the London Baroque ensemble, after which he joined Collegium Musicum 90 until 1993 and formed Trio Veracini alongside violinist John Holloway and cellist David Watkin. His first commercial appearance came on the 1987 BIS recording Music from the Time of Christian IV: Songs and Instrumental Music, followed in 1990 by the solo release Johann Jacob Froberger: Harpsichord Music on Kontrapunkt. In 1999 he assumed the artistic directorship of Concerto Copenhagen, a post he retained into the early 2020s. That same decade he led a production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre, returning regularly for further opera stagings at the house. Appointed artistic director of the European Union Baroque Orchestra in 2004, he remained in that role until the ensemble suspended operations in 2022. His extensive discography, issued on Naxos, Dacapo, and CPO among other labels, centers chiefly on lesser-known Baroque scores; a representative entry is the 2018 CPO cycle of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos performed with Concerto Copenhagen. Early in the 2020s he moved to Berlin Classics, releasing a recording of Bach’s St. John Passion, BWV 245, in 2023, by which point his total output exceeded forty albums.