Biography

Preben Antonsen (b. 1991) is a composer based in Finland and California. Specializing in vocal & orchestral music, his style combines principles of Christian & Islamic sacred art with ornamental bel canto and the harmonic innovations of the past century. Other influences are the poetry of Paul Celan, the nature mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the master jewelers of the 1800s.

Preben has been composing since he was a small child. He was featured on NPR’s program From the Top in 2008, and had his first orchestral work premiered by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in March 2009. Pianist Sarah Cahill commissioned him to write a piano work, Dar-al-Harb, for her anti-war project, “A Sweeter Music,” which she performed in Berkeley and New York in 2013. Preben is a 2005 BMI Student Composer Award winner, and six of his compositions were recognized by ASCAP, by honoring him with the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010. In his teenage years, he also co-founded the concert series “Formerly Known As Classical,” which seeks to engage young audiences.

Since then, he has collaborated with the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, various orchestras in the SF Bay Area, and singers such as Anne Harley, Jennifer Paulino, and Rita Lilly. He is long-standing composer-in-residence at Symphony Parnassus, which has performed five of his orchestral pieces, including two commissions and three world premieres. His work Psalm Without Words was commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and performed during their 2019 season.

Preben has made several transcriptions of the music of John Adams, most notably Short Ride in a Fast Machine for piano-four-hands, which is published by Boosey & Hawkes and featured on the CD American Postcard by Christina & Michelle Naughton. It has also been performed at the RUSK Festival, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, and elsewhere.

Preben has received support from the Pacific Harmony Foundation, the Korvat Auki Society, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This last grant was given in 2021 to support work on At-Tahajjud, an evening-length song cycle based on the words of early Sufi women. In 2025 he was a visiting artist at Scripps College in Los Angeles.

Preben also spent several years as co-director and pianist for the SF-based new music ensemble After Everything, which has presented works by Gérard Grisey, Kaija Saariaho, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Magnus Lindberg, Anne Clyne, Kate Soper, Katie Balch, Gabriella Smith, Lou Harrison, and many more. He has a bachelor’s degree in music & computer science from Yale University — where he focused on electronic music and built software & hardware synthesizers — and a master’s in composition from Sibelius Academy. Though no longer active as a DJ, he has experimented with making eclectic mixes, including one released by Montreal techno label Booma Collective.