Edition Wilhelm Hansen

Edition Wilhelm Hansen was established in Copenhagen in 1857 when engraver Jens Wilhelm Hansen, together with his wife Hanne, decided to expand the business into music publishing. In 1988, Edition Wilhelm Hansen was acquired by the British company Wise Music Group and continues as the group's Scandinavian division. Today, managing director Loui Törnqvist is the sixth-generation member of the Wilhelm Hansen family in charge of the company.

Edition Wilhelm Hansen is the largest music publisher in Scandinavia and maintains a catalogue that includes celebrated Scandinavian composers, from established masters like Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen, Vagn Holmboe, and Arne Nordheim to contemporary Danish composers such as Per Nørgård, Poul Ruders, Bent Sørensen, and Hans Abrahamsen, as well as notable Scandinavian composers including Outi Tarkiainen, Britta Byström, and Eivind Buene.

Throughout the company’s more than 160 year history, Edition Wilhelm Hansen has published popular music, mainly from film and revues, by Danish composers like Kai Normann Andersen, Aage Stentoft, and Svend Gyldmark. Current score composers include some of the most successful Nordic score specialists like Frans Bak and Jacob Groth, along with Norwegian composer Henrik Skram. Noteworthy Danish songwriters Sebastian, Lars H.U.G., and most recently Michael Falch are also part of the catalogue. Since 2017, the publisher's pop department has significantly expanded with prominent Danish songwriters such as Burhan G, Shaka Loveless, Lars Ankerstjerne, Lasse Kramhøft (Pilfinger), Brandon Beal, and PRISMA.

Additionally, the catalogue includes a significant number of educational books and collections of Danish singalongs and folksongs, published in songbooks to serve the special Danish traditions of communal song. The songs include both secular songs and hymns composed by notable figures such as Oluf Ring, Otto Mortensen, and Erik Sommer. These publications continue to be handled by Hal Leonard Europe after the sale of the print division in 2018.

Edition Wilhelm Hansen’s wide-ranging Rental Library represents all of Wise Music Group’s composers.