Exploiting the endless possibilities for producing sound with her instrument, Marie Sønderskov cultivates the beauty of the unknown. Working with internationally-acclaimed composers, she has premiered pieces for solo flute in venues all over the world. Ms. Sønderskov also regularly participates in cross-aesthetic collaborations with artists which combine diverse art forms with music, performance art and improvisations.
Marie Sønderskov is fluent in many musical genres and plays a variety of flutes including piccolo, alto flute, bass flute and baroque flute. Although classically trained, she specializes in contemporary music and regularly performs and records pop and world music in addition to having studied jazz improvisation and Gagaku (an ancient form of Japanese imperial court music)
As a founding member of the new music quartet, NJYD, Marie. Sønderskov regularly commissions and premieres contemporary music and cross-eastetic performances of Nordic composers. As a member of the duo Polarflare with her husband, bassist Erik Higgins, Marie Sønderskov is performing original music on baroque instruments.
Folk music traditions and soundscapes using extended techniques are often represented in Marie Sønderskov’s music. Compositions includes two pieces for flute ensemble: “The Lost Forest” was premiered at RAMA Festival 2022 and “Saltøje” was premiered at Lincoln Crossroads Music Festival, Nebraska, USA in 2019 was underwritten by the National Arts Foundation of Denmark. Other compositions include “Whispering Clouds” for flute and video projection which was premiered in Olafsfjordur, Iceland in 2017.
Marie Sønderskov is an active solo and chamber musician, regularly performing with a variety of ensembles.
She has appeared as a soloist with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and has performed in venues across the world including the Musikverein in Vienna and Carnegie Hall in New York. She has also performed in numerous music festivals including the Mata Festival in New York (USA), the Lincoln Crossroads Music Festival (USA), Musical Été a Sevrey (FR), GAS Festival (S), Klangspuren Festival (AT) and SPOR Festival (DK).
Marie. Sønderskov graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark with a Soloist degree having studied primarily with Thomas Jensen. She was an exchange student at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Petri Alanko and at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo with Kazushi Saito. She has also participated in numerous masterclasses and festivals including International Ensemble Modern Academy (AT), SICPP Contemporary Music Festival (USA) Gubbio Summer Festival (I) and Pablo Casals Festival (FR).