Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen (born 1958) studied composition with Ib Nørholm, Per Nørgård, Hans Abrahamsen and Karl Aage Rasmussen at the Royal Academies of Copenhagen and Aarhus. He has composed music in a large diversity of genres to ensembles such as The Rascher Sax 4-tet, Ensemble l'Art pour l'Art, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Madrids Radio Symphony Orhchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and most of the leading Danish Ensembles and Orchestras.
Twice a First Prize Winner and receiver of a number of Grants. In 2008 his Concerto for Bang Di and Symphony Orchestra, "Of fire and Earth", won second prize in Shanghai International Spring Music Festival.
Among major works are Symphony No "A Sense of Fall”, the oboe-concerto , "Leaves in Winter", the concert for saxophone and sinfonietta, "Winter has Come" and his operas "The Present of Eden" and "The Little Mermaid”. Newer works includes Symphony No.3 (2010) and the 30. minutes long “Music For a House” (2011) composed for live electronics, choir and 11 musicians playing out of the windows of an illuminated house.
Besides being a composer SHN works as a church- and concert-organist, and as associate professor in Music Theory at the University of Copenhagen, with a large number of theoretical writings (mainly in Danish) including an article on Per Nørgård in the latest version of MGG.