Biography
Ole Schmidt was a Danish composer and conductor. Born in Copenhagen in 1928, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and made his debut as a composer in 1955. He composed three ballets in the 1950s and later held conducting posts including at the Royal Danish Theatre, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and as principal guest conductor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.
Schmidt was particularly noted for his recordings of Carl Nielsen's symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1982 he composed a new orchestral score for Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), which premiered in Los Angeles in 1983 and was later recorded. He also composed concertos, chamber music and other film scores. He died in 2010.
