Born in 1963, Bo Andersen belongs to that generation of Danish composers whose formative years coincided with a period of far-reaching artistic reconsideration on the part of many of his older compatriots. Although several composers, such as Holmboe, retained their loyalty to a conservative tradition, many of those who were then the younger generation had in the 60s and early 70s embraced the ideals of the post-war avant-garde, only to become disillusioned with its more extreme, and ultimately anti-communicative manifestations. The result was a new search for a compositional – and expressive – rhetoric which would achieve a balanced synthesis of tradition and innovation. Like his teacher Ib Nørholm, Bo Andersen adopts an approach which aims at accessibility without any compromise in originality. Andersen studied composition with Nørholm at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where his teachers also included Yngve Trede and Erik Norby, and like so many Danish composers, he also studied the organ. Andersen is also a graduate of the University of Copenhagen, where he read Musicology and Nordic philology.