Leif Halvorsen

Leif Fritjof Halvorsen (July 26, 1887 – December 28, 1959) was a Norwegian violinist, conductor, and composer.

Halvorsen was born in Kristiania Halvorsen was the concert master for the National Theater Orchestra from 1915 to 1917, and the conductor at Oslo's Opera Comique from 1918 to 1921, where he conducted a number of opera performances. He became the director of the Holter Choir in 1930.

Leif Halvorsen was a highly sought-after violin teacher, and he composed violin pieces, a string quartet, two cantatas, piano pieces, and music for poems by Heinrich Heine and Vilhelm Krag.

In 1921 he composed music for the silent film Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde), directed by the Danish film director Gunnar Sommerfeldt. This was the first Norwegian film to receive original music. The premiere took place at the National Theater on December 26, 1921, where Hamsun himself was present. In 2009, the film with its music by Leif Halvorsen was shown at the Hamsun jubilee in Hamarøy Municipality. A DVD with the movie has been released, with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra playing Leif Halvorsen's score.

In 1915, Halvorsen married the singer Haldis Halvorsen, née Michelsen (1889–1936).

The composer Fartein Valen dedicated his Sonata for Violin and Piano (Opus 3), written between 1912 and 1919, to Halvorsen.