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Born in Frederiksberg (near Copenhagen), he studied music with J.P.E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He wrote his first pieces in his teens, including an unperformed symphony. His family were friends with Hans Christian Andersen, with whom Hamerik would correspond regularly.
Later, he left Denmark in 1862 to study music in Berlin, with Hans von Bülow, and Paris where he was a protégé of Hector Berlioz. In 1864 he began using the more unmistakably Danish version of his last name, rather than Hammerich, in the swell of Danish national feeling after the Danish-Prussian war.
He left Paris in 1869 for Italy, and then Vienna. In 1871 he was offered the post of director of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where his influence won praise from influential visitors including Tchaikovsky and Arthur Sullivan. He composed most of his large-scale concert works for the Institute's orchestra. He left his position as director of Peabody in 1898. He returned to Denmark in 1900 with his American pianist wife, born Margaret Williams, but had essentially retired. He would sit on competition boards and conduct, including his own works.
He composed 41 opus numbers, including seven symphonies, chamber music, four operas, five orchestral suites and popular orchestral music, much of it based on Scandinavian folk tunes. During his lifetime he was considered the best-known Danish composer after Gade, and one who was primarily influenced by Berlioz. His Requiem was his most successful work, and the one he considered his best.
His son Ebbe Hamerik was a conductor and composer, and his daughter Valdis Hamerik an opera singer.
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