Composer. Considered Norway's greatest composer, he wrote tuneful, romantic music in the style of Norwegian folk songs and dances. His best-known work, the "Peer Gynt Suite" (1876), was adapted from an incidental score he created for a Henrik Ibsen play. It contains such popular numbers as "Morning", "Anitra's Dance", and "In the Hall of the Mountain King". Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor (1869) is still frequently performed. The "Lyric Pieces" for solo piano, collected in ten volumes throughout his life, reveal his gifts as a miniaturist and led Hans von Bulow to call him "The Chopin of the North". Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway, and studied at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany from 1858 to 1862. In 1863 he met Rikard Nordraak (1842-1866), composer of Norway's National Anthem, who first interested him in the folk music of their homeland. After Nordraak's premature death Grieg vowed to carry on his friend's work, and he founded the Norwegian Academy of Music in Christiana (now Oslo) in 1867. That year he married his cousin, singer Nina Hagerup; her mother initially opposed the marriage, and during their long courtship Grieg wrote many songs for her, including the famous "I Love You" (1864). The Piano Concerto was praised by Franz Liszt, who helped spread Grieg's fame throughout Europe, and in 1874 the Norwegian government awarded him an annual income that permitted him to give up all activities except composing. In 1885 he built the villa "Troldhaugen" six miles outside of Bergen, where he lived the rest of his life. He died of a heart attack. Grieg's request for an unceremonious cremation was ignored, and he was given a state funeral.