Nationality: Swedish

20th Century Swedish

ALFVÉN, Hugo

Born in Stockholm, May 1, 1872
Died in Falun, May 8, 1960

[al-VAY-n] / Swedish pronunciation]

Alfvén was a violinist and choral conductor as well as a composer.
Alfvén was the Music Director of Uppsala University from 1910–39.

Biography from Naxos

Pieces

Romantic Swedish

ANDRÉE, Elfrida

Born in Visby, Feb 19, 1841
Died in Göteborg, Jan 11, 1929

Elfrida Andrée [PRONUNCIATION] was a Swedish organist, composer and conductor.
Andrée’s teachers included Niels Gade.
Andrée accomplished an impressive set of firsts:
- she was the first Swedish woman to pass the nation’s professional organist examination (and she successfully lobbied to change the law preventing women from holding the office organist at churches and cathedrals)
- she was the first Swedish woman to compose chamber music and symphonic music
- she was the first Swedish women to conduct a symphony orchestra.¹

Learn More
Biography from Swedish Musical Heritage

Pieces

Piano Quintet in e minor

20th Century Swedish

ATTERBERG, Kurt

Born in Göteborg, Dec 12, 1887
Died in Stockholm, Feb 15, 1974²

Biography from Naxos

Pieces

Suite No. 7, Op. 29 (Incidental Music to Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra)

Classical Finnish Swedish

CRUSELL, Bernhard

Born in Uusikaupunki, Finland, Oct 15, 1775
Died in Stockholm, July 28, 1838³

[Pronunciation]

Biography from Swedish Musical Heritage

Pieces

Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 1

Contemporary Swedish

FRÖST, Göran

b. 1974
Composer website

Göran Fröst is a Swedish violist and composer.
Fröst is a member of Kammaremsemblen, a Swedish contemporary music ensemble, is principal violist in the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and teaches viola at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm.⁴

Pieces

Klezmer Dance No. 2

20th Century Swedish

LARSSON, Lars-Erik

Born in Åkarp, Skåne, May 15, 1908
Died in Helsingborg, Dec 26, 1986

Larsson studied at the Stockholm Conservatory and also took composition lessons with Alban Berg.
Larsson spent much of his career as a composer and director for Swedish radio orchestras and was also a university composition professor.
Style: Larsson’s music shows the influence of Nordic Romanticism (i.e. Grieg) but also of serialism and polytonality.⁵

Pieces

Pastoral Suite: Movement 2, “Romance”

20th Century Late Romantic Swedish

LINDBERG, Oskar

Born in Gagnef, Dalarna, Feb 23, 1887
Died in Stockholm, April 10, 1955

Lindberg was an organist and teacher as well as a composer.
Lindberg was a conservatory professor of harmony and also taught high school music. He was instrumental in compiling a hymnal in 1939, which contained 14 of his original hymn compositions.
Style: Lindberg’s composition was influenced both by the late Romantic music of styles of Rachmaninoff and Sibelius, and by his own family heritage of folk music (he had peasant violinists in his ancestry).⁶

Pieces

Andante (arr. Milone)

20th Century Late Romantic Swedish

STENHAMMAR, Wilhelm

Born in Stockholm, Feb 7, 1871
Died in Stockholm, Nov 20, 1927

Stenhammar was a Swedish conductor, organist, and pianist. He studied organ and theory with private teachers, but as a composer, he was mostly self-taught.
Fun fact: Stenhammar came from an artistic family that included and architect and composer (his father) a visual artist (his mother), singers (his uncle and aunt), and a choral conductor (his cousin). As a child he was part of a family choir that sang for upper-class families.
Stenhammar was a conductor who held posts directing the Stockholm Philharmonic Society, the Swedish Royal Opera, the New Philharmonic Society, and the Göteborg Orchestral Society.⁷

Biography and works list from Swedish Musical Heritage

Pieces

20th Century Swedish

WIRÉN, Dag

Born in Striberg, Närke, Oct 15, 1905
Died in Stockholm, April 19, 1986⁸

Biography

Name pronunciation:
[dɔg viɾ’in]
“dawg vee-REEN”
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