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Carolina Wilhelmina (Nina) Wahlström, née Skårman, was born on June 1, 1859, in Skara, and passed away on September 13, 1941, in Uppsala. She was a composer and music editor.
At the age of 16, she enrolled at the Music Conservatory, where she studied piano under Hilda Thegerström. Wahlström spent much of her professional life in Uppsala, primarily working as a music teacher. During this time, she also studied composition with Ruben Liljefors. She was married to Enar Wahlström, a business manager.
Nina Wahlström was a prolific composer, particularly known for her military marches. In addition to these, she also wrote dance pieces for piano and a number of songs.
text: Urban Janlert
Gabriella Gullin (b. 1961, Stockholm) is a Swedish composer, organist, and singer, and a member of the Swedish Composers' Association since 2000. With a master’s degree in church music from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, she is a self-taught composer with an extensive and diverse body of work.
Daughter of the renowned musician Lars Gullin, Gabriella has been active as a freelance composer, pianist, and vocalist since the 1980s. She worked as a church musician in Stockholm’s Cathedral Parish and St. Clara Church from 1980 to 2005, where she also led several ensembles, including the Gullinska Quartet, the St. Clara Chamber Ensemble, and the St. Clara Youth Choir.
Her compositions have been commissioned by institutions such as Sveriges Radio Berwaldhallen (I Skogen, 2014), the Diocese of Stockholm (Mässan Domardansen, 1988), Coro Città di Roma (Io Amai Sempre, 2006), and Enskede-Årsta Parish (Emmauskantaten, 2013; Maria vid graven, 2015). In 2019, her Concerto San Michele for organ and symphony orchestra was premiered by Nacka Parish.
Åse Söderqvist-Spering's collections and pedagogical methods for piano have had a major impact on music education in the country. For the past 15 years, she has been employed extensively for lectures and courses for piano teachers and other instrumental teachers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Åse Söderqvist-Spering was born and raised in Denmark. She completed her piano teaching degree in 1970 for Professor Gottfrid Boon at the then Stockholm City School's Music Department. After working for a few years as a performing musician, she was employed at Täby Culture and Music School.
In addition to piano lessons, Åse has worked with ensemble and class teaching and with developing the collaboration between the music school and primary school. She has written several textbooks on piano playing, ear training and music theory.
In 2007, Åse Söderqvist received the Spering Mai von Rosen prize for valuable contributions to piano pedagogy. The award ceremony took place at Kungl. Musical Academy. The justification read: "Åse Söderqvist-Spering has, with great musical competence and insight, created inspiring learning materials that have enabled several generations of young people to be introduced to and develop in the world of music and piano playing."
Kristine Bratlie is an associate professor of music with formal training from the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She has held teaching and pianist positions at institutions including the Norwegian Academy of Music, Barratt Due Institute of Music, and various cultural schools in Skedsmo and Lørenskog.
In 2002, she founded Brawo, a private music school in Lillestrøm, which grew into a vital institution with over 200 students and 16 teachers. For her outstanding contributions to music education, particularly for children and youth, she was awarded the Skedsmo Municipality Cultural Prize in 2012.
In addition to her teaching, Bratlie has an active career as a performer and has published numerous sheet music editions. In 2019, she relocated to Askeryd, where she founded Villa Musika in 2023—an inspiring hub for music education, courses, and concerts.
Cecilie Ore (b. 1954) studied piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music and in Paris (1974–81), followed by composition at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam (1981–86).
In the 1980s, she gained international recognition for works such as Calliope (1984), Helices (1985), and Porphyre (1986). Her electro-acoustic work Etapper (1988) earned both 1st and 2nd prizes at the International Rostrum for Electro-Acoustic Music, and Porphyre was awarded “Work of the Year” by the Norwegian Composers’ Association.
Ore's exploration of time as a musical concept led to two major tetralogies: Codex Temporis (1989–92) and Tempura Mutantur (1997–99), followed by the “cloud” cycle, including Cirrus (2002) and Cirrostratus (2004). In the 2000s, she shifted focus to vocal and text-based works, premiering A – a shadow opera (2001) and Schwirren (2003), and later creating politically engaged pieces addressing themes like capital punishment and freedom of speech.
Her opera Adam & Eve – a Divine Comedy premiered at the Bergen International Festival in 2015. The same year, she received the Lindeman Prize. Other notable works include the satirical Vatican Trilogy (2016–18), and the H2O Trilogy for string quartet (2018–2020), for which she received both the Edvard Prize (2019) and the Music Publishers Prize (2023).
Ore continues to explore the interplay between text and instrumentation in recent works such as Katsu! (2021), Hototogisu! (2022), and Lex Naturae (2023). She was a visiting professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 2020 to 2023.
Sara Margaret Eugenia Eufrosyne Wennerberg-Reuter was born 11 February 1875 in Otterstad, Västergötland, and died 29 March 1959 in Stockholm. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm 1893−95, at the conservatory in Leipzig 1896−98, and at the Music Conservatory in Berlin 1901−02. 1906−46 she was the organist at Sofia Church in Stockholm (with a permanent position from 1918). In 1921 Sara Wennerberg-Reuter was elected to the Society of Swedish Composers and in 1931 she was awarded the royal medal Litteris et artibus.
Mia Marine (née Gustafsson) is a vibrant and versatile Swedish musician, composer, and educator from Värmland. Renowned for her expressive playing and engaging teaching style, she works in the dynamic space between traditional folk music, contemporary acoustic, and chamber music.
A graduate of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Marine has performed extensively as a freelance musician and currently also teaches violin at the higher education level. She has collaborated with a wide range of artists and ensembles, including Marine & Roswall, MP3, and Lena Willemark’s project Blåferdi, as well as with singers such as Sofia Karlsson and Ulrika Bodén. Past projects include Marin/Marin, NID, Livsverket, Södling Sessions, Esbjörn Hazelius, and Sweden’s first folk string orchestra, Bowing 9.
Marine has composed music for theatre, including Mats Ek’s acclaimed production of The Emigrants at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. As a composer, she draws primarily from traditional folk influences, enriched by elements of jazz and classical music. Her work is featured on numerous recordings, including Bowing 9 – Force Majeure (2011) and Tiden (2016), a duo album with violist Mikael Marin.
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Hélène Tham (née Murray, 1843–1925) was born into a musically and artistically inclined family in Stockholm. Her godmother was the famed soprano Jenny Lind, a close family friend. Raised in a home rich in music and literature, Tham likely studied at Adolf Fredrik Lindblad’s music school and may have received instruction in composition from Lindblad himself.
In 1864, she married industrialist and later MP Vollrath Tham. The couple had nine children and lived in various parts of Sweden before settling permanently in Stockholm in 1897. Their home was described as exceptionally harmonious and musically active.
Tham is considered one of the early pioneers among Swedish women composers. Like many of her contemporaries, she benefited from financial security and a culturally nurturing environment, allowing her to compose freely. Musical salons played a key role in her development, offering spaces where her works could be performed and appreciated.
In addition to composing, she taught piano—among her students was Victor Wiklund, later a professor of piano at the Stockholm Conservatory.
Text: Urban Janlert
Carin Malmlöf-Forssling was born in 1916 in Gävle and passed away in 2005 in Falun, where she had lived since 1952. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating as a music teacher in 1942. She went on to continue her piano studies with Gottfrid Boon and studied composition under Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1970, she became a member of the Swedish Composers' Association, where she remained for a long time as its only female member.
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She was born in Grycksbo, just outside of Falun, on 30 January 1846 and died in Stockholm on 7 October 1916. Her surviving works are limited to songs, but she was also active as a writer and it is significant that she wrote the texts to her musical works. Amalia Hjelm is the older sister of the well-regarded composer Helena Munktell.
Madeleine Isaksson, born in 1956 in Stockholm, studied piano from an early age at various music schools. During the years 1979-1987 she studied at the Stockholm Academy of Music, first mainly piano with teachers such as Gunnar Hallhagen and Mats Persson (piano), Eva Nordenfeldt (harpsichord), Hans Eklund (composition) and Bo Wallner (theory/analysis), and continued in 1983 in the composition class with teachers Gunnar Bucht and Sven-David Sandström (composition), Pär Lindgren (electroacoustics), Arne Mellnäs (instrumentation) and Lars-Erik Rosell (counterpoint).
Elisabeth Olin born in Stockholm on 8 December 1740 where she also died on 26 March 1828. Renowned opera singer and actress. The first woman to become a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Madeleine Johansson is a cellist, string arranger, and cello teacher based in Sweden. Raised in a musical family in Söderköping, she developed a deep passion for music early in life and has since cultivated a versatile career in both performance and education. In addition to her work as a freelance cellist and educator, she occasionally writes string arrangements for various projects.
In 2020, she launched a personal dream project in collaboration with guitarist and producer Anders Pettersson, marking the beginning of a new creative chapter. Johansson continues to pursue dynamic musical ventures across genres, embracing both collaboration and experimentation.
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Christina Birgersson Okkels is a singer and composer from Kisa, Sweden. She is mainly experienced in chamber music, choral music, oratorio repertoire and soloist performances
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Ulrika Emanuelsson (b. 1965) is a Swedish composer, conductor, and singer based in Lund. Renowned for her evocative choral music, she explores rich, textured soundscapes with polyrhythms and percussive vocal techniques. Drawing on texts by writers such as Dag Hammarskjöld, Tomas Tranströmer, and Lotta Lotass, her compositions often reflect existential themes.
A graduate of the Malmö Academy of Music (2007), Emanuelsson also holds a degree in rhythm pedagogy and has pursued vocal studies in New York and Budapest. Her composition mentors include Hans Gefors, Rolf Martinsson, Kent Olofsson, Björn-Tryggve Johansson, and Luca Francesconi.
With a strong foundation as an ensemble singer, Emanuelsson composes across genres—including chamber, orchestral, and vocal music, as well as opera, oratorios, theatre, and film scores—though her focus remains firmly on choral writing. Her approach often begins with extra-musical concepts, using them as creative frameworks.
She has received commissions from many of Sweden’s leading choirs. Notable works include Johansson – Lyrical Games, commissioned and recorded by the Swedish Radio Choir for the 150th anniversary of Hugo Alfvén in 2022, and I det vita ofyllda (2023), commissioned by Swedish Radio P2 for Sofia Vokalensemble and Bengt Ollén.
Her music has been recognized internationally, including at the Sacred Music Festival in New York and by the Cambridge Madrigal Singers in Boston. She has received scholarships from STIM, the Swedish Composers’ Association, and the Madeleine Uggla Foundation. Emanuelsson is also a board member of the Swedish Choral Conductors’ Association and director of Körcentrum Syd.
Malin Hülphers (b. 1964) is a Swedish composer working across multiple genres, with a strong focus on musical drama. She also writes her own librettos. Currently Composer in Residence in Västernorrland through Scenkonstbolaget, she is presently working on a commission for the Gothenburg Opera.
Anna Einarsson is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer known for her genre-defying creativity and interdisciplinary approach. Her music spans jazz, contemporary art music, electronics, and experimental sound, often blending elements from multiple traditions. With her group Anagram, she released three acclaimed albums that traverse wayward jazz, layered electronics, and sophisticated composition.
Einarsson has composed for dance, opera, children’s choirs, tram journeys, string orchestras, and big bands, with performances both in Sweden and internationally. Her eclectic style reflects a deep engagement with artistic collaboration and a constant search for new modes of expression. At age 13, she became the youngest-ever recipient of a STIM scholarship.
Her work spans four primary areas: instrumental music, vocal music, electronic music, and jazz. She has released seven albums under her own name, including two for young audiences—Tigern säger Brr, which was nominated for the Manifest Prize in 2017.
Einarsson holds degrees in music and composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and De Montfort University in the UK. In 2017, she earned a doctorate from the Royal College of Music with her artistic research project Singing the Body Electric, exploring embodiment in vocal performance and interactive music.
Hanna Blomberg is a Malmö-based composer with degrees in both violin and composition from the Malmö Academy of Music. With roots in folk music, she is a member of the ensembles Trio Wolski and Stringflip. Her compositional work often begins with a narrative, drawing inspiration from folk traditions and combining tonal material with extended playing techniques. Her music has been performed by ensembles such as Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Musica Vitae, Ensemble Mare Balticum, Orkester Moderna Musica, and Monbijoukvartetten.
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Tebogo Monnakgotla was born and raised in Uppsala. At the age of ten, Tebogo started to play the cello in the town music school. 1994 she started to study composing and cello-playing at Piteå college of music, in 1999 continuing her studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she finished her postgraduate diploma studies in 2006.
Tebogo Monnakgotla has composed mostly for orchestra and chamber-ensemble but has lately been focusing on opera, with a recent piece - Jean-Joseph - for the Royal Opera in Stockholm and the opera Zebran coming up in Vadstena July 2021. Monnakgotla has recently composed a saxophone concerto for Johannes Thorell commissioned by four Swedish orchestras.
Tebogo Monnakgotla is especially fond of using poetry in her music and this has led to a longer co-operation with poet Li Li. She also worked with poetry by, Oliveira Silveira, late Malagasies poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and others.
Adina Manghi Forsberg (b. 1992, Uppsala) is a Swedish composer based in Stockholm. Raised in a family of musicians, she was immersed in music from an early age and initially pursued classical violin studies and performance. She later shifted her focus fully to composition and now works as a freelance composer.
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Ida Lundén is a Swedish composer and musician, active primarily in chamber and electronic music. From 2011 to 2013, she served as Guest Composer at Swedish Radio P2 and is a co-founder of the experimental music collective Syntjuntan. Her music has been featured at international festivals including Musica Nova Helsinki, Klang Copenhagen, Piano+ Karlsruhe, Tokyo Jazz Festival, and Nordic Music Days.
Known for her inventive approach, Lundén often explores unconventional instrument pairings—such as viola and potato, or bass singer and double bass—and increasingly focuses on stage works and sound installations, including Orgel and Pygostylia. Her piece Songs My Mother’s Taught Me was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2016. She regularly collaborates with musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists.
Ylva Lund Bergner (b. 1981) is a Swedish composer based in Copenhagen. She began her composition studies on Gotland and continued in Stockholm, Perugia, Lyon, and Copenhagen, where she completed her soloist degree in 2012.
Her music has been recognized with several awards, including the Kunstfonden Prize for Female Composers for her piece Euphorbia, and the Francisco Escudero Prize for Cerulean Minim, written for accordion.
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Maria Löfberg (b. 1968, Stenungsund) is a Swedish composer, organist, and church musician based in Gothenburg. Her musical journey began with recorder and electric organ lessons, eventually leading to studies in organ, voice, and composition. After completing cantor training at Geijerskolan in Ransäter, she worked in Värmland before pursuing further studies at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, where she completed both the music teacher and church musician programs.
Löfberg has served as an organist in Gothenburg for many years, while maintaining a lifelong dedication to composition. Her output centers on sacred music, particularly for choir and solo voice, though she has also written chamber and organ music. In 1999, a work scholarship allowed her to focus full-time on composing, marking a pivotal moment in her creative career. With a deep love for vocal music, much of her work reflects a lyrical, expressive character rooted in her background in church music and liturgical tradition.
Maria Lithell Flyg (b. 1965) is a Stockholm-based composer with an artistic master’s degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she studied under Karin Rehnqvist. She has written works for ensembles such as the Swedish Radio Choir, Stockholm County Brass Symphony Orchestra, Chamber EnsembleN, ensemble recherche, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
With a background as a singer at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Lithell Flyg has a strong affinity for music drama and staged works, including chamber operas such as Kassandra/Högmod and the environmental opera Någon borde ta ta ta i det här…. In addition to contemporary classical music, she also writes lyrics and composes popular music.
Emmy Lindström is a Swedish composer and violinist known for her emotionally resonant, melodically rich music—often infused with humor and theatrical flair. Rooted in a neo-romantic tradition, her work explores contrasting sound worlds with remarkable fluidity. Her international breakthrough came in 2010 with Magnolia, performed across Europe during clarinetist Emil Jonason’s Rising Star tour.
Her major success followed in 2017 with the clarinet concerto At the Hills of Hampstead Heath, co-commissioned by four Swedish orchestras and later recorded by Jonason and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra under Stefan Solyom. The piece has since been widely performed in Europe and the U.S.
Lindström was Composer-in-Residence with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in 2018/19, where she wrote The Lost Clown, an orchestral work in 21 movements inspired by Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. A wind version was later created for the Östgöta Blåsarsymfoniker and Christian Lindberg.
Her growing recognition includes the 2022 oratorio Ålevangeliet, based on Patrik Svensson’s acclaimed book, premiered at Folkoperan and toured nationally. In 2022/23, she was Composer-in-Residence at Spira Kulturhus with Jönköpings Sinfonietta. In 2023, her Sång utan ord, a tribute to Stenhammar, was premiered by the Swedish Radio Choir and Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Dedicated to reaching younger audiences, Lindström has also composed orchestral works for El Sistema youth orchestras. Upcoming projects include a concerto for orchestra (Rösaring, 2025) with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a string quintet for Swedish Radio P2, and a trumpet concerto in two versions (for symphony and wind orchestra).
Born in Linköping, Lindström studied violin, orchestral performance, and composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and privately with composers Rolf Martinsson and Albert Schnelzer. Her music reflects a wide stylistic grounding—from Swedish choral tradition to classical, jazz, folk, and musical theatre—often revealing fresh and unexpected perspectives.
Susanna Lindmark is a composer, conductor, and educator with a master’s degree from the Piteå Academy of Music. A key figure in northern Sweden’s choral scene, she is known for her distinctive musical language—rich, rhythmically driven, and infused with influences from folk music and yoik. Her work aims to move both singers and audiences, exploring new expressive possibilities in choral music. Her compositions have received international acclaim and awards.
Lindmark is the founder and artistic leader of Arctic Light, a vocal ensemble for young women in Norrbotten, where stage presence, improvisation, and creative collaboration are central. A trained singing teacher, she has taught at institutions such as Nacka Music Classes in Stockholm and is deeply committed to empowering individual creativity and competence in leadership and education.
She is also the initiator and project manager of Körcentrum Nord, a regional choral center within Norrbottensmusiken. In recognition of her contributions, she has received numerous awards, including Piteå Municipality’s Culture Prize (2012), Children and Youth Choir Leader of the Year (2017), and in 2023, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music’s Medal for the Promotion of the Art of Music.
Lindmark's music has been featured in Gehrmans’ #svenskkörmusik series, with the piece Tshitta saltunza, commissioned by a Swiss ensemble and recorded by Erik Westberg’s Vocal Ensemble. Her widely performed Song of Hope was premiered in its SATB version by 19 youth choirs at the 2023 European Youth Choir Festival in Basel.
Ingunn Ligaarden is a pianist, organist, and composer based in Sweden. She has an extensive background as a concert musician and accompanist, performing with a wide range of choirs, soloists, opera singers, and pop artists. As a composer, she is particularly recognized for her choral music, with an ever-growing catalogue of commissioned works. Her music has been recorded for CD, broadcast on radio and television, and her sheet music is sold internationally in over 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas.
Katarina Leyman (b. 1963) is a Swedish composer originally from Orust in Bohuslän, now based in Stockholm. She studied composition and music theory pedagogy at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (2000–2005), and holds a master’s degree in composition from the New England Conservatory (1995), as well as dual bachelor's degrees in composition and film scoring from Berklee College of Music (1993).
Inspired by nature’s movements, structures, and patterns—such as flowing water, volcanic activity, or schooling fish—Leyman’s music often blends color, motion, and form into vivid sonic landscapes. Her work spans orchestral, chamber, and solo compositions, and she frequently collaborates closely with performers and ensembles.
Her music has been performed widely across Europe, the U.S., South America, and Russia, at festivals such as the Baltic Sea Festival, ISCM World New Music Days, Nordic Music Days, Sound of Stockholm, and others. Orchestras including the Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra, and Gävle Symphony Orchestra have performed her works in major venues such as Berwaldhallen, Elbphilharmonie, and Zagreb Concert Hall.
Leyman's Undulating Blue (2019), commissioned by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for the Music Publishers' Award, as was her Clarinet Concerto: Verdure (2015). Her Concerto for Orchestra: An Odyssey, Roller Coaster: Super 8, and Transient Skies were composed during her tenure as composer-in-residence with the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra (2012–2015). In 2014, her orchestral work King of Clouds won second prize at the Andrey Petrov Composition Competition in St. Petersburg.
Her breakthrough piece Solar Flares, commissioned by SR Berwaldhallen, premiered at the Baltic Sea Festival in 2010. Her 2019 portrait album Vattenklanger features a selection of her chamber works.
Anna-Lena Laurin was born in Halmstad in 1962. She began her professional musical career as a pianist and singer in different jazz ensembles, but nowadays works exclusively as a composer.
Anna-Lena Laurin is influenced by composers and musicians of many different genres and époques and have made many compositions mixing different genres such as Hope (2008) for string orchestra, trumpet and jazz group. Iphigenia (2009) for symphony orchestra and improvising jazz soloists and Colours (1997) concert for trumpet, jazz trumpet, chamber choir and jazz group. Her purely art-music works in the chamber music genre, for example, include the much-publicised works String Quartet No 1 (2004) and Autumn Fields (2008) for violin and piano.
More original premieres are lined up for the coming years, including Iphigenia, commissioned by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra which will have its world premiere at the Stockholm Concert Hall on April 20, 2011. The Painter for solo trumpet, jazz trio and orchestra - world premiere on October 28, 2010 by the Norrlandsoperan orchestra and trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz - and Concerto for Flute, Strings and Harp, world premiere on January 2011 by the chamber ensemble Camerata Nordica and flutist Magnus Båge.
Specific for her music is that much different kind of people - listeners, musicians, conductors, reviewers and orchestras really love it. It is easy to listen to but also very complex.
Anna-Lena Laurin likes to work face-to-face with musicians like Håkan Hardenberger, Anders Bergcrantz (trumpet), Jacob Karlzon (piano), ensembles, and orchestras such as Musica Vitae and the Malmö Opera Orchestra.
She is at the moment composing for pianist Martin Sturfält- world premiere in Italy 2010. She is also writing for Li Biao Percussion Group – a piece which will have its world premiere in Beijing at the National Center of Performing Arts and a following China tour to Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou and also Genoa, Italy. She is planning to cooperate with conductors Christian Lindberg, Paul Mägi, Jonathan Shiffman and other great soloists and orchestras.
Laurin has achieved a number of grants, prizes and overwhelming reviews and also appreciation from the Swedish Queen Silvia for her book; Sång till mormor.
Lo Kristenson is a sound artist / composer that creates music where expressions of resistance, harshness and clumsiness co-exist with fragile delicacy and vulnerability.
Kristenson is a 2018 graduate of the Master’s Programme in Composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm where she studied for, among others, Karin Rehnqvist. Her work’s been presented at established platforms such as the art gallery Artipelag, the festivals Sound of Stockholm, Only Connect (NO) and KLANG festival (DK).
In her creative practice and collaboration with other musicians, Kristenson seeks to continuously question norms and to examine how the prevailing structures influence the musical expression. Since 2018, Kristenson has collaborated with Damkapellet, a collective of musicians that highlights and performs music by composers who define themselves as women or transgender, from all times. Lo Kristenson, Norwegian duo Vilde & Inga and violist Tove Bagge are developing methods for approaching composition and collaboration based on a non-hierarchical relationship between composer and musician.
Anna-Karin Klockar is a Swedish composer known internationally for her distinctive choral voice, blending expressive nuance with deep roots in Swedish musical tradition. She gained wide recognition after winning the Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award in 2016 for Speeches, a dramatic and inventive work for mixed choir. Her background in the Italian film and television music industry—where she worked for 25 years—has contributed to the theatrical sensibility found in much of her music.
Klockar graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1985, studying composition with Lars-Erik Rosell, Daniel Börtz, Arne Mellnäs, Bengt-Arne Wallin, and Per-Gunnar Alldahl. In Rome, she collaborated with leading film composers including Luis Bacalov, Riz Ortolani, and Pino Donaggio, while also conducting choirs and composing in a range of styles from classical to commercial music.
Now based in Falun, Klockar has received numerous honors, including winning the Swedish Church's composition competition in 2014 with Missa Dalecarliensis and the Polyphonos Award in Seattle in 2017. Her choral work Limu limu lima, commissioned for Sveriges Radio’s 2022 Alfvén anniversary, has since been widely performed by the Swedish Radio Choir.
Klockar was also featured in the 2019 #svenskkörmusik series as "Choir Composer of the Month," where she spoke about the inspiration behind Speeches, now available on the album Femina Moderna by Allmänna Sången with Maria Goundorina.
Molly Kien is an American composer currently based in Stockholm, Sweden. She completed her Master’s degree in composition in 2009 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and holds a Bachelor’s degree in composition from Indiana University in Bloomington. She first came to Sweden in 2002 to study at the Gotland School of Music Composition following studies with Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström at Indiana University.\
Her works have been performed by several of Sweden's foremost orchestras and chamber music ensembles. She has been Composer-in-Residence with Västerås Sinfonietta and was commissioned by Konserthuset Stockholm to write a piece for clarinetist and Echo Rising Star Magnus Holmander to be performed throughout Europe during the 2019-20 season.
Awards include first prize in the Alvarez Chamber Orchestra's Plucked from Nowhere competition in London in 2009 and third prize in the Uppsala Composers Competition in 2014. In 2019, she was awarded the Carin Malmlöf-Forssling Composition Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Kien is very interested in American folk music, and she sings and plays clawhammer banjo, mountain dulcimer and ukulele in the old-time band, Molly Moses and the Country Cousins.
Molly Kien is a member of the Swedish Performing Rights Society (STIM) and the Society of Swedish Composers (FST). She has received scholarships from STIM, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and SWEA.
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Tove Kättström (b. 1990) is a Swedish composer based in Stockholm. Her repertoire includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, voice, duos, and solo instruments, and she often collaborates across artistic disciplines. Her music is characterized by subtle movements, attention to detail, and a strong sense of dialogue.
Kättström's work has been performed in Sweden and internationally, including at Svensk Musikvår (2025), Konserthuset Stockholm (2023), and Nordic Music Days in Reykjavík (2022). She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, studying with Professor Per Mårtensson. Her earlier studies include a bachelor’s degree in composition from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg and the Iceland University of the Arts, where her teachers included Malin Bång, Ole Lützow-Holm, and Atli Ingólfsson.
Alongside composing, she works as a music educator in piano and composition at Sweden’s School of Arts (Kulturskolan). She is a member of the Swedish Society of Composers, the Swedish Association of Women Composers, and Sisters of Contemporary Music (Konstmusiksystrar).
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Lei Feng Johansson (b. 1971) is a composer based in Gothenburg, originally from Zheng Zhou, Henan Province, China. She began piano studies at the age of five and later studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (1988–1993), continuing with postgraduate studies under Prof. Xiao-gang Ye. In 1999, she moved to Sweden to study with Prof. Ole Lützow-Holm at the University of Gothenburg, graduating in 2004.
Her works span solo, chamber, and orchestral music, and she has composed around 30 pieces since 1988. In 1998, her Cello Concerto – The Mood of the End of the Year received the Audience Prize at the 7th Composition Competition in Taiwan.
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Lina Järnegard is a Swedish composer originally from Borkhult, Östergötland. She studied composition at Gotland School of Music (2003–2005) and earned her master’s degree from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg in 2011, studying with Ole Lützow-Holm and Ming Tsao. She also studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow with David Fennessy, and participated in the Tzlil Meudcan summer course in Israel in 2012, writing for pianist Malgorzata Walentynowicz and bass/baritone Frank Wörner.
Järnegard has composed for leading Swedish ensembles such as Gageego!, Curios Chamber Players, Hidden Mother, Mimitabu, ensemble Makadam, Norrbotten NEO, and GGR Betong. Her work The Waves; identitet was performed at the International Alliance of Women in Music’s concert in New York (2013), and Emellanåt, stundom—premiered by Norrbotten NEO—was selected for the International Rostrum of Composers and the Mixtur Festival in Barcelona. Her music has been featured on several recordings, including silent plan (2018), Electronic music for chamber orchestra vol. 2 (2020), and Solo piece for peace, please (2021), in collaboration with bassist Nina de Heney.
In 2010, she co-founded the opera ensemble Dråpera with mezzo-soprano Anna-Sara Åberg and writer Signe Hammar. The ensemble creates contemporary chamber operas that challenge and expand the genre. Their works have been performed in Sweden and internationally, including Flykt, ett ansikte, and the collaborative piece Stamina Quimera with Colombian duo Ulrica Duo.
Since 2015, Järnegard has also composed for the theatre association Vårdnässpelen in Östergötland, writing music for choir, vocal and chamber ensembles. Productions have included Branden i Broo, Ho’ ska heta Helga (about Moa Martinson), and a 2021 performance featuring music co-composed with Lena Willemark.
Micaela Hoppe (b. 1965, Jakobsberg) is a self-taught Swedish composer who has been writing music since childhood. Based in Västra Ämtervik, Värmland since 1997, she creates music that often crosses artistic boundaries, collaborating with filmmakers, playwrights, and other composers.
In 2008, she was named Composer of the Year by the Bergslagen Chamber Symphony Orchestra. Her work Blue Mountains Shimmer in Backlight was selected from over 140 submissions by female composers worldwide and premiered in 2016 by I Solisti Veneti under Claudio Scimone. That same year, her art video installation Unknown Land debuted at Värmlands Museum, and she received a scholarship from the Bengt Axelsson Cultural Foundation.
From 2016 to 2019, she co-composed Divina Commedia, based on Dante’s epic, with Norwegian composer Lars Audun Hadland, and continues to collaborate with playwright Christofer Bocker.
Karin Höghielm (1962–2022) was a Swedish singer and composer born on the island of Gotland. Her artistic work spanned genres and forms, with a strong foundation in composition, classical voice, piano, and cello. She created music for the stage, often blending disciplines and exploring the boundaries between traditional and experimental forms.
Höghielm composed chamber works, choral music, and orchestral pieces. Among her notable works is a composition based on the Rökstenen, setting Old Norse text to music. Her voice was her primary instrument, but she also crafted and performed on self-made instruments, including Viking bone flutes, bullroarers, and drums—further rooting her work in both history and innovation.
She passed away in 2022 in Gnesta, leaving behind a legacy of deeply expressive and boundary-crossing music.
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Anne Pajunen, composer, singer, viola player and visual artist. Through an interdisciplinary practice she uses a mix of acoustic instruments, sound objects, custom made live electronics and visuals in a theatrical space, giving her works a unique profile. Commissions a.o. for the Swedish Radio, Norrlandsoperan, Folkoperan, international festivals and ensembles.
Performing internationally presenting her own works and 20th century/contemporary works by Swedish and international composers. Founder/artistic director of House of S.M.O.K and the interdisciplinary series Calmsleep Chambers.
Kim Hedås (b. 1965, Dalarna) is a Swedish composer known for her stylistic range, vibrant expressiveness, and exploration across artistic disciplines. She studied composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (1991–1997) with teachers including Pär Lindgren, William Brunson, Sven-David Sandström, and Magnus Lindberg. With early experience in folk, jazz, improvisation, and electronic music—as well as a stint in the entertainment world performing with author Jonas Gardell—Hedås brings a broad, interdisciplinary perspective to her work.
Her international breakthrough came with the electroacoustic piece Good morning, love – it’s springtime in my heart!, which won an award in Bourges, France. Since 1997, she has worked full-time as a composer, writing for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voice, opera, theatre, dance, and film. While electroacoustic music remains central to her output, she continually expands her sonic language.
Hedås' music is marked by strong contrasts and dynamic movement—from the charged intensity of The Tattooer (string quartet) and Summer and Snow (vocal quartet with text by Kristina Lugn), to the darker, more suggestive tones of Nights (percussion and band) and Under the Air (chamber ensemble). Pieces like Om for Kroumata and Makrob—which uses sounds from a forge but is structured like an orchestral work—reveal her deep engagement with form and texture.
Her orchestral works, including Diorama for the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Vindla for the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, explore large-scale contrasts and structural clarity. Her solo works, often virtuosic and rhythmically intricate, evoke flickering, kaleidoscopic patterns with improvisational flair—as seen in Rill for oboe and piano.
From 1998 to 2000, Kim Hedås served as composer-in-residence at Swedish Radio P2.
Tony Lundman, 2005
Having developed her very own language, the Swedish sound artist and composer Hanna Hartman creates compositions that are exclusively made up from authentic sounds which she has recorded around the world. Sounds are taken out of their original context and thus perceived in their purity. Hanna Hartman seeks to reveal hidden correspondences between the most diverse auditive impressions and in new constellations she creates extraordinary worlds of sound.
Rosanna Gunnarsson (b. 1992) is a composer from the Stockholm archipelago, working with both acoustic and electronic music, often blending the two. She completed her studies in Western art music at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2016. Her works have been performed by ensembles such as the Malva Quartet, Linn Persson/Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, the Army Band, and My Eklund, and her sound installations have been featured at venues including the Stockholm Concert Hall and Arlanda Airport.
Gunnarsson draws frequent inspiration from visual and physical experiences—translating moments such as a surfer’s encounter with Baltic waves or a freediver’s descent off the coast of Lysekil into sonic narratives. While chamber music remains central to her practice, she has increasingly explored orchestral writing, drawn to the dynamic range and expressive potential of large ensembles.
Her orchestral piece Imagining a Grand Canyon was inspired by David Hockney’s A Bigger Grand Canyon, which she encountered at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The work mirrors Hockney’s multi-canvas construction—juxtaposing fine detail with expansive gestures to evoke the emotional vastness of a grand landscape.
Rosali Grankull (b. 1984) is a composer and musician based in Gothenburg, working with acoustic instruments, objects, literature, microphones, and people. Her work explores the fragile line of instability in music, inviting unexpected questions and perspectives. She is particularly interested in the physical origins and stories of sound—how each sound stems from an action or movement—and in the dialogue between score, material, and performer.
Grankull often collaborates across artistic disciplines, seeking to expand where and how musical situations can occur. She has composed for wind and symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, choirs, theatre, and dance, and has created sound installations in collaboration with textile artists, choreographers, ceramists, and others. Her work is performed both nationally and internationally.
Erika Förare (b. 1955, Uppsala) is a Swedish composer raised in Piteå. She studied violin at Framnäs Folk High School and later composition with Sune Smedeby. From 1975 to 1979, she studied composition at the Stockholm Academy of Music under Gunnar Bucht, followed by musicology studies at Stockholm University. She now works as a freelance composer.
Förare's music is marked by precision, extended compositional processes, and a balance between intuitive inspiration and deliberate craft. Her style is characterized by sharp gestures, intricate counterpoint, and rhythmically dense textures, often in chamber music form. Her work explores the intersection of dreamlike moods, emotional introspection, and at times, playful or burlesque elements through stylistic contrasts and parody.
Deeply influenced by a wide range of musical traditions—from European and non-European classical music to folk, jazz, and pop—Förare also draws inspiration from literature and poetry. She has a particular affinity for the works of Swedish poets such as Harry Martinson and Nils Ferlin, and her interest in contemporary poetry continues to grow. Since the 1990s, her focus has expanded to include larger and more extended musical forms.
Hans-Gunnar Peterson
Ella Eriksson (b. 1997) is a Swedish composer from Hälsingland. With a background in classical piano, she creates instrumental works primarily for small to medium-sized chamber ensembles. She studied for two years at the Gotland School of Composition and has been pursuing composition studies at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg since 2022.
Anna Eriksson (born -63) is a composer, sound artist and guitarist living in Gothenburg. She writes commissioned works for soloists, ensembles and orchestras and her music is performed at concerts and festivals around Sweden and Europe. Works for, for example, sinfonietta, percussion, guitar, choir, musical theatre coexist with sound installations and more spatial expressions. Something of a common thread in music creation is the encounter between traditional instruments and various sound objects. Pencil sharpeners, table fans, egg slicers, self-playing cake candles, talking parrots and various scraps have taken their place in the music over the years, both as a contrast and in collaboration with a more melodic soundscape. She has studied composition with, among others, Sven-David Sandström (Gotland's School of Composition) and Ole Lützow-Holm (Composition Programme, School of Stage and Music at the University of Gothenburg). Anna is also a university-educated guitar teacher and works part-time with guitar lessons.
Cecilia Damström (b. 1988) is a Finnish-Swedish composer whose multicultural and multilingual upbringing in Helsinki deeply informs her music. Known for its emotional intensity, drama, and harmonic richness, her work often carries a strong social and environmental message.
Her compositions tackle pressing global themes—Tundo! is dedicated to refugees, Nixus to mental health, and her environmentally themed works such as ICE (In Case of Emergency), Extinctions, Permafrost, and the children’s opera Planet of the Animals reflect her deep commitment to climate issues. She has been referred to as “the Greta Thunberg of music.”
In 2022, Damström became the first female classical composer to win the prestigious Teosto Prize for ICE, commissioned by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra during its tenure as European Green Capital. Her orchestral work Extinctions, commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, is nominated for the 2024 Nordic Council Music Prize.
Her music also explores historical and feminist themes, such as in her trilogy of quintets inspired by Aino Sibelius, Minna Canth, and Helene Schjerfbeck.
Damström studied composition with Hannu Pohjannoro at Tampere University of Applied Sciences and later with Luca Francesconi at the Malmö Academy of Music. Since completing her studies, she has worked full-time as a composer, with a growing body of orchestral, chamber, choral, and operatic works. Upcoming commissions include a major orchestral work for the Helsinki Philharmonic and a full-length opera on a Sámi theme.
Her music is performed widely across Europe, North America, and at international festivals.
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Anna Cederberg-Orreteg is one of Sweden’s most respected and widely performed choral composers, celebrated for her craftsmanship, lyrical expression, and refined simplicity. Her works span from accessible pieces for children’s choirs to complex polyphonic compositions for mixed choir, often incorporating tonal painting and a deep sensitivity to text and harmony.
Born in Stockholm, Cederberg-Orreteg studied at the Royal College of Music, graduating in 1982 as a music director with piano as her main instrument and double bass as her secondary. She began composing and arranging early on for the vocal group she sang in, and later sang with the Storkyrkan choir under Gustaf Sjökvist—an experience that significantly shaped her as a choral composer.
Alongside her long teaching career, including many years at Adolf Fredrik’s Music Classes, she developed a strong commitment to accessible, high-quality music for all ages. Her school teaching revealed a need for well-crafted repertoire at varying skill levels, which inspired her to create inclusive and pedagogically sound choral music—earning her admiration from colleagues and students alike.
In 2023, following her retirement from teaching, a tribute concert titled Music is my name—after one of her well-known three-part works—was held in her honor. The same year, her song collection Sång gångn, part of a collaboration between the Royal College of Music and the Church of Sweden, received high praise for its thoughtful arrangements and effective piano accompaniments.
Cederberg-Orreteg’s music is published by all major Swedish music publishers, with a substantial catalog at Gehrmans Musikförlag. Her 2022 piece Natten då stjärnorna föll was featured in Gehrmans' #svenskkörmusik initiative and premiered by the Swedish Youth Choir under Erik Westberg, earning international attention.
Among her awards are the Children’s and Youth Choir Director of the Year (2005), Körkraft’s Composition Prize, and grants from the Swedish Composers' Association and the Stockholm Music Society.
Therese Birkelund Ulvo has excelled as a composer in the larger formats in recent years and is one of few Norwegian composers in her generation who regularly gets her works performed with the major Norwegian orchestras. The music is often inspired by other art fields, such as film, text, and sound art. She has a close relationship with Norwegian traditional music, where one can find both the microtonal, the rhapsodic, and open forms. Her music is widely performed, at home and abroad.
You always hear beauty when you listen to Signe Lykke's music. Not only euphony, though it is also found in rich measure, but the beauty that makes life interesting and the music indispensable.
Signe Lykke is a trained singer from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen and a classical composer from the Trinity Conservatoire of Music in London and the College of Fine Arts in Austin, Texas.
A focus on the compositional process, the musicians’ and singers' closeness to that process and the final work, helps to give Signe Lykke's music a special aura, that reaches all the way down to the back of the hall during each performance.
Sound, calm and intensity are all words that can be used about Lykke's works. Her music has room for the listener, room for you to let your focus wander in the soundscape and find new fascinating homes.
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Danish American Lil Lacy is a composer whose curiosity is at the center of her music. She works with the meeting of medias and genres, focusing on the connectivity within music. Creating without the limitations of the classical structures, Lacy is also a performer, a singer and experimental cellist. This unique perspective offers her music a malleability to space.
Lacy’s music is born in the meeting with performers, audiences, and space. From installation to orchestra, she creates tailor-made universes, claiming the right to be heard.
Lacy has composed for orchestra, choir, installations and electronics, and in collaboration with art films, theatre, visual arts and dance. Her curiosity allows her to move between worlds, bringing herself into each one, whilst absorbing a bit of them, each time.
Her first orchestral work Aliento del Mar, written for accordionist Bjarke Mogensen and Gävle Symphony Orchestra, is inspired by the movement of the tide, the push and pull of large forces. The music, as does nature, constantly transforms, from something that can barely be heard, to something than can barely be stopped again (Arbetarbladet 2021). With her use of plastic bags, Lacy deepens the ocean sound, whilst highlighting the issue of plastic waste in our waters.
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Josefine Opsahl (b. 1992) is a Danish composer and cellist whose work spans classical composition, electronic experimentation, and interdisciplinary performance. Based between Copenhagen and Berlin, she merges acoustic and digital soundscapes, often combining her cello with live electronics and sound design in her solo performances.
Opsahl studied both classical and contemporary music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and Northwestern University (IL, USA), earning her Master’s degree in cello. She later completed composition studies in Contemporary Creative Art at the South Danish Conservatory.
Her work as a performer includes collaborations with ensembles such as Kottos and We Like We, as well as her 2022 solo release Atrium. As a composer, Opsahl has written for opera, ballet, and symphonic orchestra, including a cello concerto and large-scale works premiered at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Her opera Hjem was nominated for Opera of the Year at the 2023 Reumert Awards.
She is the recipient of several prestigious honors, including the 2022 Crown Prince Couple’s Stardust Award, the 2021 Léonie Sonning Talent Prize, and the Wilhelm Hansen Foundation’s Prize of Honor (2020).
Opsahl’s music is noted for its sensitivity to space, texture, and time—combining formal classical training with a contemporary, genre-defying curiosity.
Louise Alenius hacks into formats, unsettles her musicians, challenges her audience, dissects the concert form.
Her career as a composer for classical ensembles began in 2008 with new music for the second act of August Bournonville’s ballet Napoli, which had its premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre in 2009. In 2008 Alenius wrote the music for Louise Midjord’s modern ballet The Egg, The Monk and The Warrior. She composed the music for Constantine Baecher’s ballet Palimpsest in 2011 and for Cathy Marston’s ballet Elephant Man in 2013.
In Rouge, a duet for strings from 2016, during their performance of the work a cellist and a viola player are bound to their seats with gaffer tape by the composer herself, who then proceeds to tear at their skin with her nails.
Since 2014 Alenius has presented six different versions of La Poreuse, a work designed for an audience of just one person at a time. 2016 saw the premiere of Prequiem, a work to be performed for one terminally ill patient at a time.
She has also supplied the dramatic atmospherics and haunting mood for a succession of advertising films for such companies as Peugeot (2011), Turkcell (2014) and Interflora (2015).
Louise Alenius lives primarily in Copenhagen, but has a base in Paris as well. In addition to her work with the Royal Danish Theatre she also carries out freelance commissions, composing works for ensembles large and small, choirs, films, adverts and dance companies.
Ralf Christensen © Translation copyright Barbara J. Haveland 2017
Maja S.K. Ratkje (b. 1973) is a Norwegian composer, vocalist, and performer known for her boundary-pushing work in experimental and contemporary classical music. Based in Oslo, she works across a wide spectrum of formats—from chamber music and orchestral works to opera, electronic music, improvisation, and interdisciplinary performance.
Ratkje studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music under Lasse Thoresen, Olav Anton Thommessen, and Asbjørn Schaathun, and continued studies at IRCAM and with composers including Louis Andriessen, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Kaija Saariaho. She is a founding member of the Norwegian improv quartet SPUNK, and performs internationally with a variety of collaborators including Jaap Blonk, Lasse Marhaug, Stephen O’Malley, and Zeena Parkins.
Her music has been performed by leading ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Sinfonietta, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, among others. She has appeared as a vocal soloist with orchestras and chamber groups across Europe, often performing her own works such as the Concerto for Voice and Orchestra and the large-scale choral-electronic piece Crepuscular Hour.
Ratkje’s diverse output includes opera (No Title Performance), works for dance and theatre, installations, and sound art. Notable works include Gagaku Variations, Korall Koral (a baby opera), Sinus Seduction, and Essential Extensions. She has been composer-in-residence at several international festivals and was twice profiled by the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco.
She was the first Norwegian recipient of the Arne Nordheim Composer’s Prize (2001), and has received multiple honors including two Edvard Prizes, the UNESCO Rostrum Award, and a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction for her groundbreaking solo album Voice.
In addition to her creative work, Ratkje is a published author (Stemmer. Eksperimentell kvinneglam), a former music critic, and an outspoken environmental advocate. She refuses commissions or performances sponsored by the oil industry and is a member of the climate action group Stopp oljesponsing av norsk kulturliv.
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Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) is one of Iceland’s most celebrated composers, internationally acclaimed for her immersive orchestral soundscapes shaped by landscapes, nature, and a deep sense of atmosphere. Her music, often described as expansive and elemental, has been commissioned and performed by some of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and BBC Philharmonic.
Originally trained as a cellist, Thorvaldsdottir studied composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, and later earned her MA and PhD from the University of California, San Diego. She is currently composer-in-residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and is based in Surrey, UK.
Her major orchestral works include Dreaming (2010), which earned her the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2012; AERIALITY (2011), which brought her international attention; METACOSMOS (2017), premiered by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the New York Philharmonic; and CATAMORPHOSIS (2020), commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and awarded the Ivors Composer Award in 2021.
Thorvaldsdottir’s music has been featured at leading venues and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Big Ears Festival, and she has been the subject of portrait concerts around the world. She has also held guest lectures and presentations at institutions including Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Sibelius Academy, and the Royal Academy of Music.
Her work continues to shape the global contemporary classical scene with its profound sense of time, space, and sonic imagination.
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Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023) was a Finnish composer whose visionary work reshaped the landscape of contemporary classical music. Based in Paris since 1982, she was internationally acclaimed for her immersive sound worlds, blending live instruments with electronics to create rich, spectral textures.
She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg, and Paris, and her research at IRCAM marked a pivotal shift in her style—from serialism to spectralism. Saariaho received major commissions from institutions such as the Lincoln Center, IRCAM, the BBC, New York Philharmonic, Salzburg Festival, and the Finnish National Opera.
In 2019, she was voted the greatest living composer in a BBC Music Magazine poll of fellow composers. Saariaho’s legacy endures through her deeply expressive, sonically rich compositions that continue to inspire audiences and musicians worldwide.
Outi Tarkiainen (b. 1985) is a Finnish composer whose music draws deeply from the natural landscapes and emotional resonances of her native Lapland. Born and raised in Rovaniemi, she creates contemporary classical works that often explore themes of nature, memory, and identity.
Tarkiainen studied composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Eero Hämeenniemi and Veli-Matti Puumala, and continued her studies with Ron Miller at the University of Miami and Malcolm Singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Her works span orchestral music, chamber music, and vocal pieces, and she is recognized for her evocative, lyrical style and rich orchestration.
Britta Byström (b. 1977) is a Swedish composer known for her richly textured orchestral works and a distinctive sensitivity to sound and resonance, often described as impressionistic. Born in Sundsvall, she studied composition with Pär Lindgren and Bent Sørensen and has since written for a wide range of ensembles, including chamber music, vocal music, and opera—though her primary focus has been orchestral music.
Byström’s works have been performed by leading orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. She has composed for soloists including Malin Broman, Rick Stotijn, Radovan Vlatković, and Janine Jansen.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Carin Malmlöf-Forssling Composer’s Prize (2010), Lilla Christ Johnson Prize (2012), and the Stora Christ Johnson Prize (2020). Her viola concerto A Walk After Dark, written for Ellen Nisbeth, received the Da-Capo Prize at the Brandenburger Biennale in 2014. In 2016, she was awarded the Elaine Lebenbom Award for Female Composers by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and her song cycle Notes From the City of the Sun, featuring soprano Malin Byström, was recognized as a “recommended work” at the International Rostrum of Composers in 2019.
Highlights of her recent work include Infinite Rooms, a double concerto for violin/viola and double bass inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s immersive art installations, and Parallel Universes, an orchestral work based on cosmologist Max Tegmark’s theories. The latter was commissioned by the BBC to mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall and premiered at the BBC Proms in 2021. Her chamber opera Gállábártnit, with a Sami-language libretto by Rawdna Carita Eira, premiered at Soundstreams in Toronto in 2019.
Byström’s music has been published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen since 2010. She became a member of the Swedish Society of Composers in 2002 and was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2016.
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl (1847–1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist, widely celebrated in her time and considered one of Scandinavia’s foremost musical figures of the 19th century. Born in Holmestrand into a culturally engaged and well-off family, she received her first piano lessons from her parents, both amateur musicians. After the family moved to Christiania (now Oslo), she studied with composer and pianist Halfdan Kjerulf, who quickly recognized her exceptional talent.
Against the conventions of the era, her parents eventually supported her professional ambitions, and in 1865 she began studies in piano and composition at Theodor Kullak’s conservatory in Berlin. Upon returning to Norway in 1868, she made a sensational debut performing Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto under the baton of Edvard Grieg. Her debut as a composer followed shortly, with two orchestral works that were warmly received. She later pursued further piano studies with Hans von Bülow in Florence and Franz Liszt in Weimar.
From the early 1870s, Backer-Grøndahl enjoyed a remarkable career as a concert pianist, touring extensively throughout Scandinavia. In 1875, she was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and married conductor Olaus Andreas Grøndahl, with whom she had three sons. She balanced family life with concertizing, teaching, and composing whenever time allowed.
In the mid-1890s, her health and nerves began to decline, and she withdrew from public performance. However, at the urging of her close friend Edvard Grieg, she returned to the stage in 1890 with a triumphant performance of his piano concerto at the Bergen Music Festival. She continued performing for devoted audiences in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark until her final years.
Agathe Backer-Grøndahl died in 1907 at her home on Ormøya, near Oslo, nearly completely deaf. Her legacy endures as a pioneering female composer and a central figure in Norwegian musical life.
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Alice Charlotta Tegnér (née Sandström, born in Karlshamn 12 March 1864, died in Stockholm 26 May 1943) found fame in the great many children’s songs that she composed over the decades from the 1890s onwards. The songs became exceedingly popular and many of them are still central to the Swedish children’s song tradition. She was also a successful organist, teacher and choir leader in Djursholm. Her contributions to art music consist of numerous solo songs, choral pieces and cantatas, and on the instrumental side, a violin sonata.
Valborg Aulin was born on 9 January 1860 in Gävle, and died on 13 March 1928. She had a significant career as a composer in her hometown of Stockholm, which was interrupted in 1903 when she moved to Örebro to work as a music teacher. During her active years as a composer, she had numerous works published and performed. With a good education and heavily influenced by her musical upbringing, she wrote music that was much appreciated during her lifetime: mostly works for home and the salon, which, although influenced by French music, still belongs within the Scandinavian tradition.
Helvi Leiviskä (1902–1982) was a Finnish composer whose music has seen growing interest in recent years, with new performances and recordings underway. She studied composition at the Helsinki Music Institute under Erkki Melartin, continuing her studies in Vienna and later in Finland with Leevi Madetoja and Leo Funtek. In addition to composing, she worked as a music teacher, writer, and librarian at the Sibelius Academy.
Leiviskä’s music reflects deep philosophical and spiritual themes, merging Late Romantic expression with moderate modernism. Influences include Symbolism, Expressionism, Existentialism, and Neo-Classicism.
Her catalogue includes nearly 50 works—ranging from orchestral and chamber music to songs and choral pieces. Her major works are the Symphonies Nos. 1–3 (1947–1971) and Sinfonia Brevis (1962/1972), the latter regarded by the composer as her fourth symphony. Her Piano Concerto (1935) was praised for its immediate impact and expressive power.
Among her most significant chamber works are the Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 1 (1926), the Piano Trio (1925), and the Violin Sonata in G Minor, Op. 21 (1945)—all marked by emotional intensity, virtuosic writing, and neo-Romantic imagery. These works are now available in new editions.
Princess Charlotta ‘Eugénie’ Augusta Amalia Albertina Bernadotte, was born on 24 April, 1830, and died on 23 April 1889 in Stockholm. She was the only daughter born to King Oscar I and Queen Josephine. Her musical training included composition and performance. Musicians and singers were often invited to perform in soirées and concerts held at the Royal Palace. Princess Eugénie composed pieces for this milieu, particularly piano works and songs. She was engaged in charity work throughout her life. Elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1859.
Elfrida Andrée was born on 19 February 1841 in Visby and died on 11 January 1929 in Gothenburg. She was the first woman in Sweden to graduate as an organist (1857−60) and to become a cathedral organist; she became organist of Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867 and remained so until she died. She studied composition with Ludvig Norman at the educational institution of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1860). As a composer of chamber music and symphonic works, she was a female pioneer in Sweden, and the same goes for her activity as an orchestral conductor. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1879, Litteris et Artibus award in 1895, Idun ‘Women’s Academy’ fellowship in 1908.
Carolina Amanda Erika Maier (Maier-Röntgen by marriage) was born on 20 February 1853 in Landskrona and died on 15 July 1894 in Amsterdam, where she lived following her marriage in 1880 to the pianist-composer Julius Röntgen (1854−1932). She studied at the educational institution of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm between 1869 and 1872, and in 1872 became Sweden’s first-ever female Director of Music. In Leipzig between 1873 and 1876, she studied violin with Engelbert Röntgen and harmony and composition with Carl Reinecke and Ernst Friedrich Richter. She was a violinist and composer, active in Sweden and on the Continent.
Laura Constance Netzel (née Pistolekors), b. 1 March 1839 in Rantasalmi, Finland, d. 10 February 1927, Stockholm, grew up in Stockholm and was both pianist and composer (from 1874 onwards using the sobriquet ‘Lago’). She studied composition under Wilhelm Heintze in Stockholm and Charles-Marie Widor in Paris. For many years she also worked as a concert arranger and orchestral director. Most of her compositions are in late Romantic, chromatic style, with touches of contemporary French music, and her work received coverage not least in French music journals.
Hilda Thegerström, b. 17 September 1838, d. 6 December 1907, was one of the most important Swedish pianists during the second half of the 19th century. She made her mark through concert performances, which soon attracted press coverage, and was a highly influential piano teacher. For 32 years she was principal piano teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music. As a composer, her output was limited, but two piano pieces of hers were published in Germany.
Ylva Q. Arkvik (b. 1961) is a Swedish composer with a diverse musical background. Initially working as a ballet accompanist, piano teacher, and cantor, she gradually turned to composition after completing studies in musicology at Uppsala University and music teaching at the Stockholm Academy of Music. She later earned a diploma in composition from the same institution in 2000.
Arkvik has composed works across a wide range of genres, including chamber and orchestral music, electroacoustic pieces, opera, and theatre music. Her interest in interdisciplinary collaboration has led to projects with sculptors, dancers, and poets. She has created several solo works tailored for specific performers and compositions that integrate live instruments with electronics. Notable stage works include the chamber opera Solitario, with poet Eva Runefelt, and You Must Not Go!, a short opera developed with author Eva Ström, set against the backdrop of the events of September 11.
Her music is marked by an intense, often restrained expressiveness, shaped by a modernist aesthetic rather than stylistic eclecticism. Characteristic traits—dreamlike melodies and sharp contrasts—can be heard in works such as the string quintet Tid läggs som tunt papper över beröringen, Qué for saxophone quartet, and Skarpa, vassa for solo violin.
Catharina Backman (b. 1961, Stockholm) is a Swedish composer, jazz pianist, and improvisational musician with a rich and varied background. Her career has included roles as bandleader, theater musician, choir director, and performer—including as part of the traveling variety show Varieté Vauduvill, where she composed music, learned the accordion, and even performed on stage.
With her acclaimed ensemble Katzen Kapell, Backman performs her own tango-influenced compositions, known for their playful, stylistic twists and Zappa-like flair. Alongside her work in jazz and theater, she has composed orchestral and chamber music, having studied composition with Maurice Karkoff in Stockholm and later with Hans Gefors, Rolf Martinsson, Kent Olofsson, and Javier Alvarez at the Malmö Academy of Music, where she earned her degree in 2000.
Text and voice often play a central role in her music—not just for their meaning, but for their sound. She has composed settings of poetry as well as children's operas such as Porträttet and Stackars mej. Her compositional style is shaped by her wide-ranging musical experience and blends elements from both classical and non-traditional genres. Backman has also explored electroacoustic music, particularly works for loudspeakers and solo instruments.
Tony Lundman,2003
Malin Bång’s music is an exploration of movement and energy. She defines her musical material according to their amount of friction to create a spectrum of unpredictable and contrasting actions, ranging from the intimate and barely audible to the harsh and obstinate. In her work she often incorporates acoustic objects to explore a rich sound world and to suggest that a musical content can be shaped by anything valuable to the artistic purpose.
Malin Bång is residing in Stockholm, Sweden and is the composer in residence and a founding member of the Curious Chamber Players. Her work includes music for instrumental ensembles, orchestra, electronic music based on field recordings, and instrumental performance pieces. Lately she has specifically explored the mixed, amplified instrumental ensemble extended with acoustic objects in collaboration with the members of Curious Chamber Players.
Her works are performed worldwide and some recent projects include the music documentary drama
During 2010 she was awarded the Kranichsteiner Stipendienpreis for her ensemble work Turbid Motion at the Darmstadt Festival. In 2012 she was invited by the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm for the one year residency in Berlin.
Malin Bång has studied composition at the Academy of Music in Piteå, Universität der Künste i Berlin, the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, the Göteborg University and in several master classes and courses for example Voix Nouvelles at Royaumont, Summer Academy Schloss Solitude, Forum for Young Composers by Ensemble Aleph and Darmstädter Ferienkurse, with teachers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Gérard Grisey, Philippe Manoury, Philippe Capdenat, Chaya Czernowin, Walter Zimmermann, Friedrich Goldmann, Ole Lützow Holm, Pär Lindgren, Jan Sandström and Peter Lyne.
Catharina Palmér (b. 1963, Karlskrona) is a Swedish composer with a broad musical background in violin, piano, and organ, in addition to her formal composition training. She earned her diploma in composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1998 with Counterpoint to Silence for the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, she completed a doctorate in composition at Indiana University, USA, with the chamber opera Master Zacharias as her final work. She has been a member of the Swedish Composers' Association since 1999.
Palmér's music has been widely performed in Sweden and internationally, by ensembles including the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Kroumata, Musica Vitae, and leading choirs such as the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Orphei Drängar, and the Swedish, Latvian, German, and Netherlands Radio Choirs. From 2006–2009, she served as one of three composers-in-residence for the Tonsatt project by Musik i Syd.
She has achieved particular acclaim in choral music. Notable recognitions include first prize in Indiana University’s vocal composition competition (2002) and second prize in Hymnia's international competition (2003) for Kissrain, Watersleep, later performed by the Swedish Radio Choir at the ISCM World New Music Days (2009) and the Baltic Sea Festival (2010). In 2013–2014, the Swedish Radio Choir dedicated a portrait series to Palmér, concluding with the premiere of Strings in the air above, which earned her a nomination for the 2014 Musikförläggarnas Konstmusikpris.
In 2015, Palmér was named Composer of the Year by the Stockholm Music Society, especially for her contributions to choral music. She has received numerous awards and grants, including scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, STIM, and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Poetry is a major source of inspiration in her work, shaping both her vocal and instrumental compositions.
Carin Bartosch Edström (b. 1965, Malmö) is a Swedish composer and soprano with a strong focus on vocal and dramatic music. Raised in the USA and Italy, she has also worked as an Italian language coach and translator of opera librettos, specializing in early music. In 1987, she founded Lund Student Opera, directing productions such as Stravinsky’s Mavra and Hindemith’s Hin und zurück.
After serving as orchestra director for Musica Vitae (1990–1992), Bartosch Edström turned to composition, studying at the Malmö and Stockholm Academies of Music under Rolf Martinsson, Hans Gefors, Lars Ekström, Lars-Erik Rosell, and Sven-David Sandström. She graduated in 1999.
She is a founding member of the women composers’ association Opus 96 and co-founded the Skanör/Falsterbo Chamber Music Festival with Mats Rondin and Marianne Jacobs.
Her compositional output centers on vocal music and opera, including the chamber opera Trassel and the children’s opera Huvudsaken, alongside a range of instrumental works. As a soprano, she frequently performs her own music, integrating vocal, textual, and dramatic interpretation into a unified artistic expression.
Tony Lundman
Victoria Borisova-Ollas (b. 1969, Russia) is an internationally acclaimed composer whose music is known for its vivid orchestration, emotional depth, and distinctive voice. She received her early training at the Central Music School and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and later continued her composition studies at the Malmö Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music in London, and part-time at the Stockholm Academy of Music. Since 1992, she has been based in Stockholm.
Her breakthrough came in 1998 when her orchestral work Wings of the Wind was awarded second prize in the prestigious Masterprize International Composition Competition in the UK. Since then, her music has been widely performed in Sweden and abroad by leading orchestras and ensembles, including the BBC Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and the Raschér Saxophone Quartet.
Borisova-Ollas’s music has been praised for its orchestral mastery and originality. Critics have described her as “a composer with a sparky individual voice” (BBC Music Magazine), “an orchestrator of the greatest virtuosity” (The Times), and noted her work for its “sonorous imagination and technical perfection” (Hufvudstadsbladet). Dagens Nyheter called her music “a swirling sound poetry.”
Kristin started taking an interest in music already at the young age of five, when she started playing the violin. Later she also took up playing the saxophone. Her journey towards becoming a composer started when she got an apprenticeship with the renowned Swedish composer Fredrik Högberg.
When her apprenticeship ended, she began studying for her bachelor's degree in composition at the music academy in Piteå, where she graduated in 2014. In spring 2016 she obtained her masters degree at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She is currently living in Piteå.
During her creative process she likes to weave visual elements into her music, giving it multidimensionality, either in the form of audiovisual illusions, or simply by using imagery to emphasize a certain mood. This takes the experience beyond the auditory and into the multisensory borderlands between music, theater, illusion and reality.
Boussard's music has been played at several music festivals such as: Båstad Chamber music festival, New Directions festival in Piteå, Svensk musikvår, Unm festival and others.
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