Norway's most famous orchestral composer Edvard Grieg gave Norwegian music its definition in the mid-1800s, creating scores for the world-renowned Peer Gynt and masterminding opuses like Piano Concerto in A minor. Grieg is most famous for his composition "In the Hall of the Mountain King," a tune often duplicated in classical music.

Grieg geared his life toward music from the start; while still in school, he left his hometown of Bergen, Norway to study at an impressive conservatory in Leipzig. There, Grieg studied under the musical geniuses Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reineck, and it was also at this conservatory that he worked on and performed his first score, String Quartet in D minor. Graduating in 1862, Grieg next studied under the supervision of Danish composer Niels Gade. Gade furthered Grieg's career in Scandinavia, and soon the Norwegian had married his cousin and moved to Oslo, teaching piano lessons while conducting music. In 1869, Grieg's composition Piano Concerto in A minor was performed by Edmund Neupert, securing his spot as one of the top classical artists of his time. Also around this time, Grieg teamed up with Henrik Ibsen, the result a life-changing collaboration in the music of Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. Grieg led the scoring of Suites 1 and 2 of Peer Gynt in 1888 and 1893, respectively, and the compositions' success led Grieg into the top circle of musical acquaintances of the day, palling around with composers like Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Liszt.

In the late 1800s, Grieg performed a string of recital tours, making a cameo as music director for the Bergen Symphony Orchestra, followed by a stint as the director for the Bergen Harmonien. From 1885 until the early 1900s, Grieg starred as a conductor in several different musical projects, traveling the globe until his weak immune system caught up with him in 1907, when he died of chronic fatigue in his hometown of Bergen.