  thumb|right|200px|carl nielsen in 1910 carl august nielsen (; 9 june 18653 october 1931) is widely recognized as denmark's greatest composer, and is also remembered as a skilled conductor and a violinist. brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age. while it was some time before his works were fully appreciated, even in his home country, nielsen has now firmly entered the international repertoire. especially in europe and the united states, his music is ever more frequently performed, with interest growing in other countries too. carl nielsen is especially admired for his six symphonies, his wind quintet and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet. in denmark, his opera maskarade and a considerable number of his songs have become an integral part of the national heritage. while his early music was inspired by composers such as brahms and grieg, he soon started to develop his own style, first experimenting with progressive tonality and later diverging even more radically from the standards of composition still common at the time. for many years, he appeared on the danish hundred-kroner banknote. ==life== ===early years=== thumb|250px|left|carl nielsen's childhood home nielsen was the seventh of 12 children in a poor peasant family in nÃ¸rre lyndelse near sortelung south of odense on the danish island of funen. his father, niels jÃ¸rgensen, was a house painter and amateur musician who, with his abilities as a fiddler and cornet player, was in strong demand for local celebrations. all the children bore the surname nielsen despite regulations by the ministry of church affairs. nielsen described his childhood in his autobiography min fynske barndom (my childhood in funen). his mother, whom he recalls singing folk songs during his childhood, was the daughter of a well-to-do family of sea captains and his uncle was a composer and performer of popular music.  nielsen gave an account of his introduction to music: "i had heard music before, heard father play the violin and cornet, heard mother singing, and, when in bed with the measles, i had tried myself out on the little violin" is probably authentic. nielsen learned the violin and piano as a child and wrote his earliest compositions at the age of eight or nine: a lullaby, now lost, and a polka which the composer mentioned in his autobiography
1865_births 1931_deaths 19th-century_classical_composers 20th-century_classical_composers Academics_of_the_Royal_Danish_Academy_of_Music Carl_Nielsen Composers_for_piano Composers_for_pipe_organ Danish_composers Opera_composers People_from_Faaborg-Midtfyn_Municipality Pupils_of_Niels_Gade Romantic_composers Royal_Danish_Academy_of_Music_alumni