
Västmanlandsmusiken, with artistic director Rikard Gateau, are staunch supporters of ELNA. Here are some of their favorite pieces by Nordic women composers!
Jenny Hettne – While She Was Dreaming
for solo violin and electronics
Britta Byström – Screen Memories
trumpet concerto
Marie Samuelsson – Vaggvisa from Jorun orm i öga
vocal sextet
Karin Rehnqvist – Blodhov / Bloodhoof
melodrama for octet and mezzo-soprano
duo for lute and viola da gamba
Jenny Hettne (b. 1977, Gothenburg) is a Swedish composer based in Stockholm. She studied composition at the University of Gothenburg, where she earned her master’s degree in 2008, as well as at Gotlands Tonsättarskola and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Her teachers have included Henrik Strindberg, Ole Lützow-Holm, Jörg Mainka, and Bent Sørensen.
Hettne’s music is characterized by detailed sound exploration and close collaboration with performers. She composes for both orchestras and smaller ensembles, often blending acoustic and electronic elements to create rich, nuanced soundscapes where timbre and color are central.
Her works have been performed internationally at various festivals and by ensembles and soloists such as the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Norrbotten NEO, Gageego!, Ensemble MA!, Caput, Duo Harpverk, Ensemble DissonArt, The Griffyn Ensemble, and artists including Karin Hellqvist, Jonny Axelsson, and Pauline Kim Harris.
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.
Karin Rehnqvist (born 1957) is one of Sweden’s best known and most widely performed composers. From chamber music to orchestral, stage and vocal works, she has blazed a unique cross-genre trail, exploring the borderland between art and folk music, and evolving a highly distinctive compositional and performance style.
One of her signature motifs is the extraordinary vocal technique of Kulning, the ancient call of Nordic herding girls to drive in their flocks.
A restless innovator, her repertoire is marked by an uncompromising invention, raw emotional power and the icy shock of the new.
Source: https://karin-rehnqvist.se/eng/biography-short-version/