Född 1957 i Södertälje, växte upp i Värmland. Inspirerad av styvfadern Sven Edéns intresse för folkmusik började jag spela fiol vid tio års ålder. 

Fiollektioner för Sigvard Stenberg - Karlstad kommunala musikskola 1968-1973. 

1976-80 studier i musikvetenskap och etnologi vid Göteborgs universitet följt av kompositionsstudier vid Norges Musikhögskola åren 1983-87 för bland andra Bjørn Kruse, Olav Anton Thommessen och Lasse Thoresen.

Studier i hardingfela/huvudinstrument för Ånon Egeland  som en del av tonsättarutbildningen 1983-1985.

Sedan slutet av 1970-talet verksam som folkmusiker på frilansbasis, bland annat sedan 1981 i folkmusikgruppen Groupa. 

1979 Riksspelman på enradigt dragspel som den förste att erhålla märket på detta instrument då det tidigare inte ansågs passa in i Zornmärkets sammanhang.

2009 invald som ledamot i Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien.

2019 Zorns guldmärke.

2012 Lektor i folkmusik vid Musikhögskolan i Malmö. 

Större delen av mina verk finns representerade på Svensk Musik samt på Da Vinci Edition House.

https://davinci-edition.com/

Verk utgivna på Da Vinci Edition:

https://davinci-edition.com/composer/mats-eden/

Naturæ Sonus. Konsert för Härjedalspipor och orkester. 

Stråkkvartett nr 1

Waldeleken för solo cello

Konsert för mandolin och orkester

Kammarsymfoni nr 1

Verk på Svensk Musik:

The Ripple Effect, konsert nr 3 för violin och orkester

Partita för viola solo

In motu corpora

Zacharias Ehnvall (1991) studied piano from the age of 5 and some years later moved on to organ, which he studied with Andrew Canning at Uppsala Cathedral from the age of 13. During this period he developed his interest in organ improvisation and composition. After high school Ehnvall studied music theory, renaissance counterpoint and composition at Uppsala University with Per-Henning Olsson and Mattias Lundberg before entering the composition class at the Royal Collage of Music in Stockholm in 2014. Here he studied with Pär Lindgren, Marie Samuelsson and Christofer Elgh among others. In 2019 he took his masters degree in composition for professor Karin Renqvist. Zacharias Ehnvall has composed orchestral music, chamber music and choral music, as well as opera, for ensembles like The Swedish Radio Choir, Norrbotten NEO, The Swedish Wind Ensemble, Ensemble Temporum (Norway), Musica Vitae and Schola Cantorum Upsaliensis. So far, his music has been performed in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia and Germany. He has received composition grants from STIM, Musikens Hus Vänner in Uppsala as well as from The Royal Collage of Music in Stockholm. He is currently working full-time as a composer but is also continualy working on improving as a performer on the organ. He has a deep love for improvisation, combining his knowledge in composition with the act of performance in real time. As an interpretor he has a particular interest in the music of Jehan Alain and Jean-Louis Florentz.

As a composer he has developed his artistic aesthetics through combining his knowledge of sound, gained through years of experiencing the organ and a deep interest in early music, with the french spectral school of composition. He also has a great interest in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze which has played an important role for the development of his thoughts on music and organ improvisation in later years.

The French spectral school of composition (developed by composers such as Grisey and Murail) has played a very important role in my development as a composer. Coming originaly from a tradition of older church music and nature poetry, this tradition unified many of my thoughts and areas of interests. Further development and inpiration was gained through the works of Deleuze as well as through the research on music and composition by Fredrik Hedelin through his PhD dissertation Living Music : The Ritornello and Creative Music.

What I am looking for today, as a composer, is not primarily means to express myself but tools through which investigations of perception and phenomena in our reality become possible. These tools are created, composed, with every work I write. The areas I investigate can be e.g. how we experience our presence in time and space, how we learn things (how our memory operates) or how we understand patterns. It can also be about examining natural phenomena such as crystallization (frost) or sedimentation through music or to study different sounds and seek to find what forces are hidden deep below the surface. Music that is composed with human perception in mind has the ability to change and distort our experiences of space, time and understanding of context and I find this very interesting and powerful! It is, of course, also a great emotional experience when this happens, at least to me. Often this music leads me to simplicity: how a figure, movement, tendency or direction develops slowly over time and becomes what we refer to as music. Suddenly everything seems possible: Wind can, over time, become music. Music can, over time, become a conversation. One kind of music can, over time, become a totaly different kind of music. Linked to this is also an aspect I find very important today namely that the listener, regardless of experience, can create some kind of understanding of where the music originates from and why it sounds the way it does and why it develops the way it does in a particular work. Some form of understanding is very important in a musical work in my opinion. For me it is not enough that it is beautiful or expressive if I, as a listener, am left alone in the understanding of the work's origin, momentum and force of vitality. It is my belief that this understanding of music can be applied to everything other than music as well. That music in the long run can make us understand (or perhapse rather create?) connections and meanings in our lives that otherwise would not have been understood or seen. Music is magic :)

Zacharias Ehnvall, september 2021

Force majeure - Formation - Ouvertyr for large symphonic orchestra was composed during the automn of 2018 and had it's premiere November 23 2018 at The King's Hall, KMH, Stockholm with KMH Symphony orchestra and Felix Bagge, conductor. Duration is approximately 12 minutes and the piece starts with the conductor leaving the stage. The first movement, "Force majeure", is therefore an improvisation for large orchestra which is, in a way, out of anyones control. The second movement, "Formation", takes what is "thrown out" in space and organizes it gradually to something very simple: three ascending pitches which then becomes the theme for the rest of the piece. "Ouvertyr" is a coda which brings the newly born theme to "the next level", transforming it from melody to texture, creating an exit from the music.

https://youtu.be/wUwZRZGpaKY?t=14

Variationer över BÄCK for piano quartett was composed in 2019. It was premiered May 27, 2019 at Edsbergs Castle, Stockholm, with Siiri Alanko (violin) Saara Kurki (viola) Daniel Thorell (violoncello) and Joakim Martinsen (piano).

Sven-Erik Bäck (1919-1994) was a Swedish violinist and composer. He was also during a period the director of studies at the Swedish Radio school of music, at Edsberg, and he played an important role for the art music in Sweden during the 20th century. Composed in 2019, 100-years after his birth, this piece is built around spectral variations on the two contrasting events in his name: "BÄ-CK". The piece explores the becoming of a musical form through the repetition and time-stretching of those two events and, further, the aftermath or sedimentation which is the result.

https://youtu.be/i3OzYrKK6yE

O, Viola Riviniana for double choir was composed in 2016 and is dedicated to my mother, Viveca. The firs performance toke place the 24th of April 2017 at Kungasalen KMH, Stockholm with KMH Kammarkör and KMH Vokalensemble conducted by Tove Åhrman. This music is greatly inspired by the chorlamusic of the old master Josquin Des Prez and combines a polyphonic approach with elements of nature poetry.

https://soundcloud.com/zacharias-ehnvall/o-viola-riviniana-version-for-double-choir-2017

Julia Ekström (f. 1996) skriver nutida konstmusik inspirerad av romantiken, impressionism, filmmusik och jazz. Hon har en kandidat i komposition från Musikhögskolan i Malmö (2022) och hennes musik har blivit framförd av bl.a. Orkester Moderna Musica, Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Gotlandsmusiken och Ensemble Mare Balticum. 

Innan studierna vid Musikhögskolan i Malmö har Julia även utbildat sig vid Gotlands Tonsättarskola i Visby, Lilla Akademien i Stockholm samt St. Sigfrids folkhögskola i Växjö.

Efter examen från Musikhögskolan blev Julia anställd av Kalmar Läns Musikstiftelse för att i samarbete med dem skriva en operett för barn, succéföreställningen "Cirkusstoft - om den sista svavelstickan", som hade premiär i Virserums konsthall under december 2022.

Utöver att vara tonsättare är Julia också en av de tre grundarna till och projektledare för Malmöbaserade Orkester Moderna Musica, som just nu är Sveriges yngsta symfoniorkester som framför nyskriven konstmusik. Orkestern hade sin framgångsrika premiär i St. Johanneskyrkan i Malmö den 23 april 2023, då bl.a. ett helt nyskrivet verk av Ekström framfördes, och har blivit en stor sensation i Malmös kulturliv. 

"Sleipner" 2023, Orkester Moderna Musica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKqTKCyuyvY 

"BLANK" 2022,The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra

https://www.composerjulia.com/music/ 

"Abendlied" 2022, Elba Duo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM5biC8gtEU&ab_channel=JuliaEkstr%C3%B6m 

”Orbit” 2021, The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzWAUYtU_3A&ab_channel=JuliaEkstr%C3%B6m 

"Tundra" 2021, Josefin Sundström

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM-VWf_N8qw&ab_channel=JuliaEkstr%C3%B6m 

"Om den sista människan" 2019, Gotlandsmusiken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1dcwFdGI1o&ab_channel=JuliaEkstr%C3%B6m 

"Nothing gold can stay" 2018, Lilla Akademiens Chamber Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK5jFfUMKQI&ab_channel=JuliaEkstr%C3%B6m 

”1921” 2017, Amadeakvartetten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aWPYjJsqTU&ab_channel=JuliaEkstr%C3%B6m 

Christofer Elgh (1969) in Åmål Dalsland Sweden has studied composition with teachers including Sven-David Sandström, Salvatore Sciarrino, Pär Lindgren, Bent Sørensen, Hans Gefors, and Kent Olofsson at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the Malmö Academy of Music, and the Ingesund College of Music.
Elgh has composed around seventy works, among them operas, chamber music, orchestral works, and music for numerous dance performances and film projects. His music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras across the globe, both in concert and in radio broadcasts. Currently Elgh teaches composition and music theory at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Ingesund College of Music. Christofer is interested in finding new forms of expression in music drama an often collaborate with freelancing music drama groups.

Ulrika Emanuelsson f. 1965 är tonsättare, dirigent och sångare utbildad vid Malmö Musikhögskola med examen 2007, boende och verkande i Lund. Hon har en även en rytmikpedagogexamen från -95 samt sångstudier i New York för Oren Brown och för Maria Therésa Uribe i Budapest. Under kompositionsutbildningen studerade hon för professorerna Hans Gefors och Rolf Martinsson, Kent Olofsson, Björn-Tryggve Johansson samt professor Luca Francesconi.

Hon är en erfaren körsångerska från flertalet mycket kompetenta körer som t ex Lunds Vokalensemble, nu aktiv i Petri Sångare och är sedan 2003 dirigent för Carolinae Damkör i Lund, utsedda till Lunds kommuns kulturpristagare 2014.

Hon är flerfaldigt prisbelönad för sina kompositioner, bl a vid Sacred Music  Festival i New York och Cambridge Madrigal Singers i Boston och hon skriver för kammarensemble, orkester, solo, körverk, opera , oratorie, rekviem, teatermusik och kortfilm,  för alla möjliga typer av ensembler med tyngdpunkt åt körmusiken och det vokala.

Grundare av det årligen återkommande ”Choir Aid” där en stor samling av Skåneregionens mest framstående körer går samman för att hjälpa samhällets behövande.

Har sedan examen -07 varit verksam som frilansande tonsättare i det egna företaget Eeka Music.

Några viktiga händelser i livet:

Studier på Södra Latins musiklinje i början på 80-talet - en mycket präglande tid med spännande människor och en kreativ miljö. The Sky is the Limit!

Fann en personlig tro, bildade familj -  The Foundation for Life!

Gjorde en nygammal upptäckt av att tonsätta musik i början på 2000-talet. - Creating Music is Giving Life to Sound!

Lärde känna Peter Lyne och Fredrik Högberg, studerade på Kapellsberg i Härnösand - We need the Experience of Others!

Piano Experimentia - 24 preludes for piano

Ventures - 24 preludes for piano book 2 

24 Preludes and Fugues for piano book 1 and 2

Infra Ultra - Piano Concerto no 1

Arbor Inversa - for Chamber Ensemble

String Quartet no 1

Sonatine for Violin and Piano

Passacaglia Elegiaco - for Chamber Ensemble

The White Concerto - Piano Concerto no 2

Graphics for Piano

English Rhapsody - for Orchestra

Three Jewish Poems - for Choir and Ensemble

Piano Concerto no 3

Piano Sonata no 2

The Black Concerto - Piano Concerto no 4

Symphony no 2 - The Italian

Piano Sonata no 3 - 8

Symphony no 3 - Alienum Avem

Symphony no 4 - Elegy

Piano Concerto no 5 - Against hope believed in hope

Piano Concerto no 6 - Odyssey

Piano Concerto no 7 - Movere ad posterum

Piano Concerto no 8 - Suite

Piano Concerto no 9 - Wonderland

Joel Thoor Engström is a Swedish composer whose works are often vibrantly expressive in rhythm and harmony while still maintaining a lyrical tenderness and contemplation. Joel Thoor Engström composes with a variety of stylistic influences from both neo-classical composers and the French tradition following Debussy and Ravel all the way to experimental rock and progressive chiptunes. His works range from orchestra, choir, chamber/solo-works as well as several chamber-operas and have been performed at several Swedish venues such as Berwaldhallen, Malmö Live, Folkoperan and Louis De Geer Konsert och Kongress by leading ensembles including Swedish Radio Choir, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, ensemble recherché, Norrbotten Neo, KammarensembleN and Stockholm Saxophone Quartett.

Joel Thoor Engström holds a bachelor and a masters degree in composition as well as a degree in music pedagogy from The Royal Conservatory of Music, Stockholm. He also studied composition at Gotlands School of Music Composition, Visby as well as supplementary courses in conducting and leadership at Royal Consevatory of Music and Ingesund Music Consertvatory in Arvika. Among his teachers were compositional professors Karin Rehnquist, Pär Lindgren, Per Mårtensson, Henrik Strindberg and Mats Larsson Gothe. 

He is currently teaching music theory, ear training and composition at Lilla Akademien upper secondary music school in Stockholm and has been artistic director and conductor for Immanuel Brass (2010-2014) as well as a tutor at various music summer camps. Joel has also been an active board member on several music associations, including Stockholm Art Music Centre (2017-2023) and URUK-Uruppförandeklubben (2014-2023), and worked as producer and co-ordinator on various music-festivals and productions. He is also a reoccurring arranger for the Royal Swedish Army Band.

Aurora (2023) – Brass Band, dur 19’. Commissioned by Musik i Syd and Brassmusik Skåne to be used as the Set-test piece in the European Brass Band Championships 2023 in Malmö, championchip section.

Om Människan (2019) – Chamber opera (as composer and conductor). Premiere performance on march 7th  2019 at Folkoperan, Stockholm.

Ascension (2018) – for soprano and piano. A short monodrama written for the Canadian soprano Brittany Rey and performed In Halifax, august 2018.

Mayday Payday (2014) – a 35 min chamber opera about two activists fighting against corruption and segregation during an ongoing apocalypse. Premiered at Folkoperan, Stockholm, Sweden on april 26th 2014. Conducted by Emil Eliasson.

Metric Dance ­(2013) – fl, ob, cl, perc, 2pno, vln, vla, vlc. Performed by Ensemble Recherche, Freiburg, Germany.

Olycksfågelns dotter (2013) – Music for a theatrical play by Rebecka Cardoso. Commissioned and produced by Teater Halland with 36 performances throughout the spring and summer.

Cantus Eternus (2012) – for wind orchestra. Performed by the Swedish win orchestra and also at the UNM festival in Reyjkavik, Iceland.

Procession 2.1 (2009) – for wind orchestra, performed at the ISCM festival (International Society of Contemporary Music) in Visby by the Gotland Wind Ensemble, recorded and broadcasted by the Swedish National Radio. Also performed at the festival Ljudvågor 2008 in Visby.

I am always curious about sounds. As a composer, I think that our professions are inseparable from our daily lives. What l care about when l compose or record is the big blob of meaningless sounds that we encounter so many times in daily life, which we do not care about unless we have to, and sound
groups that come from details that give life its meaning…