Gert Mortensen (b. 1958) graduated from The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, from the soloist programme where he now holds the position as Professor, Head of Timpani and Percussion.
For 25 years Gert held the position as principal percussionist at The Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen and became recognised as one of the leading concert percussionists in the world.
As a soloist he has performed in concerts and television/radio shows in the majority of Europe, USA, Japan, Australia and China. He has played at numerous international festivals, including at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, The Barbican, ISCM World Music Daus, Warzaw Autumn, Edinburgh Festival, Festspellene in Bergen, Estate Musicale Venice, Beijing Percussion Days, The Stockhausen Festival and Berlin Philharmonic.
Gert Mortensen has since 2004 intensified his concert touring in China where he has performed in countless cities from Shenyang in the north, to Guanzhou in the South, at famous venues such as the National Centre for Performing Arts, Beijing, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
He has been featured as a soloist with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and has represented Denmark during the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. He has delivered lectures and masterclasses and has had TV-programmes on the international Chinese CCTV consequently becoming a founding member of the world’s first Music Confucius Institute (MCI) – established in Copenhagen during a visit from the Chinese president in 2012.
Gert Mortensen regularly delivers masterclasses all over the globe and has been an instructor in the European Union Youth Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado. He has also been an instructor at the National Youth Orchestra China, founded in Carnegie Hall in New York 2017.
A string of Scandinavia’s leading composers has written pieces to Gert Mortensen – among them Per Nørgaard, Sven-David Sandström, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Poul Ruders and Askell Masson.
Gert Mortensen has recorded for BIS, DG, OUR and Dacapo Records.
