Category: Blog posts

I have had several experiences in the past few days where different pieces of music have reminded me of other music. One of them teased at my mind for days – I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it reminded me of. The other was immediately clear as day. And less than an… Continue reading Musical Reminiscence

This Maundy Thursday evening I’m thinking back to last weekend and working at this year’s Sundsvall Guitar Festival. I presented the festival’s three evening concerts – three very different programmes ranging from Irish folk to Renaissance music. The first evening was all about Baroque and Renaissance music, as the concert coincided with the European Early Music… Continue reading All Good Things

Last week, I had the pleasure of seeing two operas, both composed fairly recently, by two Swedish composers. As someone who far too rarely gets out to actually enjoy a performance in an audience, getting two opportunities in the same week was not refreshing and artistically invigorating. First was Mats Larsson Gothe’s The Promise, with… Continue reading A Bright Future for Swedish Opera

Last week, during a visit to Karlstad for a concert at the Wermland Opera, I attended a walking tour at one of the city’s cemeteries. The guide talked about various women buried there who had contributed to city’s development in significant ways, some even earning international fame. I had planned on writing this post about… Continue reading Lasting Impressions

I’m making excellent progress on my brand-new concert piece for the Octava Chamber Orchestra set to be premiered by them this summer. Pretty soon, the only thing left will be the hardest thing to figure out of all: the name of the piece. Working on this composition has also turned into kind of an exercise… Continue reading What’s in a Name

I have gone on regular tangents over the years about my views on crossover projects and the inherent difficulty in doing them well. Earlier this week, I stumbled on a brand-new example of what is, in my opinion, a crossover project done wrong. First of all, I want to give some well-deserved praise to Welsh… Continue reading Crossed Out

I have finally gotten started properly on both of this year’s two (so far!) larger composition projects. I had hoped to get going as early as January, but I was kept busy by working on or preparing other jobs. The two projects in question are the short opera for the Royal Swedish Opera, premiering Spring… Continue reading Great Artists Steal (From Themselves)

Among my clearest memories from when I was a teenager is a recurring, tangible anxiety over my then current as well as future abilities as a composer. Yes – I started worrying about such things early, why wait? One of my biggest concerns was that I did not know how to write anything that was longer… Continue reading Skul Means Shelter

Last week, I wrote an article for an upcoming concert at Berwaldhallen later this year, featuring a selection of music by pop idol turned experimental songwriter, Scott Walker. After a successful five years with The Walker Brothers (even though none of the three members were related, nor were any of them actually called Walker), Scott… Continue reading 30 Century Man

Every MAGFest I have attended so far has been a better experience than the last one. This one, my fourth, easily tops all previous years. I met wonderful people, had interesting conversations, listened to brilliant live music, and got to play awesome games. I’m writing this blog post on a plane from the D.C. area,… Continue reading Relight My Fire