Petter Wiik was born on July 30 1966 in Baerum, just outside Oslo.

He started piano lessons at the age of six, and continued private piano lessons regularly until he passed his General Certificate of Education. He was a member of the St. Johannesguttene Choir for several years. During his highschool years, he performed with various bands, mostly those that incorporated a great deal of solo and lead elements in their music. However, at that time young Mr. Wiik could not afford either a Fender Rhodes nor a PolyMoog, so his instruments were just a horrible organ and a miserable electronic piano.

After obtaining his GCE, he moved to Trondheim, which, by the way, is the hometown of the successful production team "Stargate". He started to study at the Norwegian State Institute of Technology in the autumn of 1984, where he quickly became very active in the students' environment, performing with several basement bands and jazz session bands for several years, together with very talented musicians, such as Kaare Kolve, Tor Haugerud, Torjboern Hillersoy and others.

Petter Wiik soon became interested in theatre music: he composed the music for the UKA 87 festival, a student festival in Trondheim, for which he also conducted the band. He also composed the music for the festival in 1989. He participated in an unknown number of performances with the students' theatre in the years 1984-1991, including "West Side Story" and "Cabaret," for which he was orchestra conductor and producer (organiser). His academy studies suffered somewhat from all this extracurricular activity!

Nevertheless, he still managed to obtain a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering in 1990. However, he played far too much table music piano in this period, mainly at the Royal Garden Hotel and the Egon Restaurant -- since then he has hardly touched a piano! (Well; almost not)

In 1990 he had his first professional theatre performance at the Troendelag theatre, one of Norway's main stages, in cooperation with actor Lasse Kolsrud and dramatist Idar Lind. The play was called "A Man’s Gotta Do What He’s Gotta Do" and was later performed in The Norwegian Theatre in Oslo in 1992, when it received splendid reviews. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation produced a television dramatisation of the play in 1996.

After completing Initial Service in 1991, he made a living as a freelance musician, composer, director and producer in Trondheim and frequently worked for the Troendelag Theatre. In 1994, however, he entered the Academy of Music in Oslo to study composition. He therefore moved back home to Oslo after 10 years "in exile." He still worked from time to time for the Troendelag Theatre, where his most recent assignment was for "West Side Story" in 1997, as a part of the celebrations for the opening of the "New Troendelag Theatre."

In 1996 he started playing modern to modern and classical classes at the State Academy of Ballet in Oslo. New and exciting composing commissions began to appear for him. The period 1994 ? 20001 has seen numerous and varied commissions from leading artists in the areas of dance, stage art, web, and studio productions. His music has been performed in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Vilnius and London.

Since completing his studies as a composer 1998, he has worked as a composer and piano player/keyboardist. He has also set up his own Mac-based studio for project development.

He lectures at the The State Academy of Ballet in Olso on composition and sonology. He also finds the time to write monthly articles about music technology.

in the Norwegian Musician´s Guild Bulletin - "Musikk•Kultur".

Since January 2001 he has acted as producer for the artist and songwriter Terry Young.

Petter Wiik's homepage.