Bio

Composer, guitarist and singer Morten Alfred Høirup lives in an apartment near one of Frederiksberg's beautiful old parks.

"My life revolves around the story and the music, the traditional, but not least the newly composed music, and it is in the conversation with the audience that I experience the strength of the music. Wherever in the world I play, I meet an audience who from their own lives know and recognize the sorrows, joys and life struggles that underlie the music we play and the songs we sing. It is fantastically life-affirming, and it makes a lot of sense to play your own compositions in Denmark, Japan or Bulgaria, and experience that the audience accepts and embraces the music, and sends lots of positive energy back!”

Morten Alfred is known and respected on the Danish and international folk music scene as a dynamic, innovative and deeply original guitarist, singer and composer. The US based website, Rambles.net writes:

"Morten Alfred Hoirup has been playing guitar for over 20 years and is a master of his instrument. His playing is expressive, powerful, yet graceful. He is also a great storyteller.”

Over the years, Morten Alfred has recorded a large number of albums with various bands, and has received no less than ten Danish Music Awards, including "Danish Folk Album of the Year" (2004) and "Danish Folk Composer of the Year" (2004). In 2012 he received a Danish Music Award in the category "Award of the Year", for his many years of commitment to the Danish roots and folk music scene, and in 2016, together with the trio Gangspil, he received a Danish Music Award in the category "Danish Tradition Award of the Year".

In addition, he has received a "Preis der Deutsche Schallplattenkritik 2008", "Tingluti Prize" (2012), DMF's "Ildsjæleprisen" (2014), Musik over Præstø Fjord's "Player's Prize" (2015), and a large number of grants from e.g. DJBFA, KODA, DMF, DAF, Tingluti and the Statens Kunstfond.

Morten Alfred grew up in a musical family. The father, Fin Alfred Larsen, is a folk singer, musician and tradition-bearer, and already as a teenager Morten started playing in his father's in-demand wedding orchestra.

In the following years, he performed in large parts of the world with e.g. the international trio, American Café Orchestra, the Danish duo, Haugaard & Høirup (1998 – 2008), in the folk/world band Himmerland (2010 – 2015), and in the trio Gangspil (2012 – 2017).

At the moment, Morten Alfred plays, among other things. his own music in the band Morten Alfred & Vingården, with whom he released the EP Druer/Grapes in 2023.

In early summer 2022, he published Ingela's Waltz – 25 New Danish Folk Melodies, a sheet music collection of his own melodies including suggestions for chords and stories about a life as a traveler in music.

As already mentioned, Morten Alfred received a Danish Music Award as "Danish Folk Composer of the Year" in 2004, and he has composed music for a number of bands, as well as for a large number of documentaries and nature films shown on TV channels in large parts of the world, including ARTE, YLE, NRK, SV2, TV2, DR1, DR2, DR Kultur, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel.

In addition, he has distinguished himself as a freelance music journalist and as a project manager and organizer within roots and folk music. For more than 20 years he worked for Danmarks Radio as host and producer of radio programs such as "Folk Nyt", "Radium" and "Det er Dansk", and later for Den 2. Radio as host and producer of the magazine program "Folk Danmark", as well as a writer for roots and folk music magazines and websites in Denmark and abroad.

At the time of writing, he is chairman of the Mediehaven association (since 2018), and editor, host and producer at, among others, the podcast "The Cat in the Sack". You can find it on Mediehaven's digital media platform, Radiofolk.dk, which in 2019 received a so-called OOaward and a DMA Folk statuette for its role as a public service medium for Danish folk music.

From 2009 to 2014, Morten Alfred was the project manager of the Danish export initiative, Danish Roots – Growing in the World, and in that connection produced and published a number of compilation CDs with Danish roots and folk music bands.

In the years 2010 to 2018, he was active in cultural politics on the board of DJBFA (Danish Composers and Songwriters), now Autor, where in the last two years he held the position of deputy chairman. In this connection, he sat on the board of KODA (Composers in Denmark) in the period April 2016 to April 2017.

"Speaking of song, I haven't mentioned Høirup's singing. He only sang one song at this matinee concert, but the audience – packed in like sardines – loved it. A bit husky, a bit rough, and totally tender. We want more!” – People it!, Radio Concertzender NL

Morten Alfred Høirup plays and tours in 2024 and 2025 in, among others, Denmark and Switzerland.