Frans Rasmussen was born in Aalborg in 1944. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen as a pianist and conductor, where he later on became a lecturer. His teachers included Jørgen Jersild, who urged him to take up the study of conducting.

Frans Rasmussen has conducted, among other orchestras, those of the Royal Danish Theatre in Copen­hagen, and the Danish National Opera in Århus. He has conducted all the Danish regional orchestras and has been a guest conductor in most European countries.

For his recording of Carl Nielsen’s complete works for a cappella choir Frans Ras­mussen was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque; he was nominated Conductor of the Year 1986 by EBU and received the Danish Broad­casting Corpo­ration’s Bolero Prize for the initiation of the recordings of Niels W. Gade’s complete works for soloists, choir and orchestra.

Since 1988, he has cooperated with the composer György Ligeti. Frans Rasmussen headed the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra for the Danish premiere of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto and has given concerts in Europe with Ligeti and the Asko Ensemble from Amsterdam.

In 1997, he founded the choir Canzone with which he for Dacapo Records has recorded romantic choral songs by Barnekow, Rung, Fabricius, Bechgaard and Malling as well as Rued Langgaard's Sinfonia interna.

Frans Rasmussen also made a name for himself as a mediator of music, both through lectures and radio and television broadcasts. In 2011, he participated as a judge in DR's how-to-conduct TV show Maestro.

Frans Rasmussen suffered a brain haemorrhage on Thursday, the family informs Ritzau. He was 76 years old.