[1] Jersild worked from 1953 to 1975 as a professor of ear training by The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
Jersild learned how to play the piano at a young age and, when he was twelve, he arranged for the school orchestra and wrote some small compositions.
He became a student of Rudolph Simonsen and later Poul Schierbeck, who taught him theory and composition, and Alexander Stoffregen, who gave him lessons on the piano.
After a short stay in Paris in 1936 where he was taught for three months by Albert Roussel, he returned home and studied musicology at the University of Copenhagen.
His output as a composer was not large, but included a large number of very well built choruses including 3 Madrigali (1957), Trois piéces en concert for clavier (1945), wind quintet Playing in the woods (1947) and the musical adventure play Alice in Wonderland (1951), based on the book by Lewis Carroll.
Upon receiving the, Nielsen Memorial Scholarship in 1999, Karl Aage Rasmussen, another composer, gave a speech that included following: "Jorgen Jersild's life's work is not comprehensive, and it is perhaps because his music is on the hunt for the particular simplicity and ease with no quick shortcuts to."