Simon Steen-Andersen (b.1976) is a Danish composer, performer, and installation artist currently based in Berlin. He works in the space between instrumental music, electronics, video, and performance within settings ranging from symphony orchestra and chamber music (with and without multimedia) to stagings, solo performances, and installations. His works emphasize the physical and choreographic aspects of instrumental performance. They often include amplified acoustic instruments in combination with sampler, video, simple everyday objects, or homemade constructions.
 
Steen-Andersen has received numerous prizes and grants: the Nordic Council Music Prize and the SWR Orchestra Prize in 2014, the Carl Nielsen Prize (DK) and the Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 2013, the International Rostrum of Composers and the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm Residency in 2010, and the Kranichsteiner Music Award in 2008. He has been commissioned by ensembles, orchestras, and festivals such as ensemble recherche, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, the SWR Orchestra, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and Oslo Sinfonietta. Steen-Andersen has also worked with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, Arditti, London Sinfonietta, Intercontemporain, asamisimasa, and NADAR.
 
Steen-Andersen studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde, and Bent Sørensen. He has been a lecturer of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark since 2008, in 2013-2014 he was a visiting professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and in 2014 he was a lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkursen für neue Musik.

The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with "explosive virtuosity" (Boston Globe) and "viscerally exciting performances" (New York Times). Alex Ross (New Yorker) hailed their performance of Iannis Xenakis' complete string quartets as "exceptional" and "beautifully harsh," and Mark Swed (Los Angeles Times) called their sold-out performances of Georg Friedrich Haas' String Quartet No. 3 In iij. Noct. "mind-blowingly good."
 
The recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Suntory Hall (Japan), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), and the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik (Germany).
 
JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers including John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Vijay Iyer, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Mackey, Matthias Pintscher, Steve Reich, and John Zorn. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Toby Twining, Georg Friedrich Haas, Simon Holt, Kevin Ernste, and Simon Bainbridge.
 
JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music and studied closely with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.