Yesterday was a lucky day! I got the opportunity to sing the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Symfonia III) by H M Górecki. It's such emotional and strong music combined with lyrics as sorrowful as the title...

Thanks to all co-musicians of S:t Matteus Symfoniorkester for excellent playing and to dear conductor Sonny Jansson for introducing me to this magnificent music!

S:t Matteus Symfoniorkester

Yesterday was the upbeat of a new season at Bromma Folkhögskola! I'm looking forward to work with new student singers and to be a part of their individual development as musicians!

Bromma Folkhögskola

I had a lovely day yesterday, doing the Lars-Erik Larsson masterpiece God in Disguise (Förklädd gud) in Sunne church. It's always a pleasure singing and listening to this music... it kind of appeals to my Swedish heart!

Christoffer Holgersson was conducting the choir and orchestra from Geijerskolan International Music Week, and Tomas Bergström was reciting as well as singing the barytone solo.

Geijerskolan International Music Week
Christoffer Holgersson
 

Rehearsal today of God in Disguise (Förklädd gud) by Lars-Erik Larsson with choir and orchestra from Geijerskolan International Music Week 2014. I do the parts for solo soprano, Tomas Bergström the barytone solo and my husband Christoffer Holgersson is conducting. The concert will be held tomorrow evening in Sunne kyrka, Värmland.

Geijerskolan
Christoffer Holgersson
Geijerskolan International Music Week

Yesterday I sang in magnificent Engelbrekt Church, Stockholm, during a private service. Always lovely to perform songs that are wished for, from heart to heart! Wonderful co-musician was Stefan Therstam, organ/piano.

Engelbrektskyrkan

Hereby some pics from the evening at the Stockholm City Hall yesterday! We had great fun! =)

Returning to the City Hall earlier today I met my dear friend and colleague Anders Neglin to discuss the future... It was a pleasure getting to know Anders during the large Christmas Concert production in the Stockholm Concert Hall last December!

Stråkkapellet String Ensemble
Experianza

I had the pleasure tonight being the guest artist during a large banquet in the Stockholm City Hall. As a grand final of the evening I did together with brilliant Stråkkapellet String Orchestra music by Händel, Lehár, Grieg and Rossini. Great entertainment and music managing by Annika Brantingson, Experianza and Victoria Lundell, Stråkkapellet!

Stråkkapellet
Experianza

Today was scheduled for rehearsal of the music for the event tomorrow night at the Stockholm City Hall and the Italian guests! The entertainment consists of male composers and female preformers! =) Me and and the (for this occasion female) string orchestra Stråkkapellet (lead by Victoria Lundell and Malin-My Nilsson) will do music by Händel, Lehár, Grieg and Rossini!

Stråkkapellet

What a joy singing music by Henry Purcell!! During the concert tonight, at Kulturhuset Anders in Höör, I did some highlights from The Fairy-Queen and Dido and Aeneas.

Excellent co-musicians were Emelie Roos, Aureliusz & Ewa Golinscy, Kanerva Juutilainen, Julia Dagerfelt, Rastko Roknic, Hanna Thiel, Judith-maria Blomsterberg, Dohyo Sol and Peter Lönnerberg.

I have had the honor being a guest artist at the Höör Baroque Festival since the premier 2012. I'm looking forward to new musical adventures!

Höör Barockfestival 2014

After the opening concert of Höör Baroque Festival the musical festivities continued at Höörs Gästis Baroque Pub La Folia Inn! I got the opportunity to sing music from the Fairy Queen by Purcell, as I will continue to do during the concert tomorrow night!

Höör Barockfestival 2014

A new day of beautiful baroque music!! Such joy rehearsing with these incredible talented musicians!

The festival starts tomorrow night in Höör Church at 18:00. I will do my first appearance at 21:00, at the pub (Höörs Gästis)! Most welcome!

Höör Barockfestival 2014

Stockholm-Höör was the trip of today and ended up with a wonderful reunion with excellent musicians and colleagues, followed by a rehearsal of heavenly music from The Fairy Queen by Purcell!

Höör Baroque Festival of 2014 has started!!

Höör Barockfestival 2014

Finally I'm heading back home to Stockholm. I have experienced great and intense days with wonderful musicians and today I did my final stop on this last tour. I performed this afternoon during a private event in Löddeköpinge Church in Skåne County with a program of mixed genres from Edvard Grieg to Sarah Dawn Finer!

I must admit that I'm a bit tired. Not only because of the early flight from Bergen this morning, but also because of all musical input and output these past weeks. I'm looking forward to a couple of days of resting my voice, but after that I will dive joyously into music by Vivaldi and Purcell! =)

What a success! The Norwegian Soloists' Choir and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra were a perfect match and performed the Choral Fantasy by Beethoven and Friede auf Erden by Schönberg beautifully and with an extraordinary brilliance! Special thanks to amazing pianist and conductor Leif Ove Andsnes as well as to wonderful conductor Grete Pedersen!

I'm very pleased with my first visit to the Bergen International Festival as well as with my first performance with the Norwegian Soloists' Choir! Let's hope we meet again...!

They say that it's always raining in Bergen....but I must say that I have been lucky... It rained when we arrived yesterday, but since then it has been almost blue sky and sunshine...! As my visit ends I am now listening to beautiful raindrops outside my open window as I pack my bags for a very early flight to Copenhagen tomorrow morning. A private event is waiting for me in the south part of Sweden. Let's get some sleep....!

Det Norske Solistkor
Bergen International Festival
Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Together with Det Norske Solistkor and Grete Pedersen, I arrived in Bergen today after a morning flight from Oslo. Such a beautiful place!!! During the rehearsal at Griegakademiet the rain stopped and we got a wonderful pre-summer's evening! I took the chance to see and experience Grieghallen (our concert venue tomorrow night) when attending the opera performance "Voices and Votes". Looking forward to sing in this amazing hall as a part of the Bergen International Festival.

This morning I took off to Oslo, Norway, to meet Det Norske Solistkor (the Norwegian Soloists' Choir) for the first time. It was a pleasure singing with their conductor Grete Pedersen again. I worked with her a couple of years ago in Stockholm during a production with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir. This time I will be a part of the Det Norske Solistkor as they go on tour to Bergen and the Bergen International Festival.

Det Norske Solistkor
Bergen International Festival

Great pieces of music started off this week;
Brahms; Fest und Gedenksprüche
Ligeti; Lux aeterna
Schönberg; Friede auf Erden
Edlund; Elegi
Poulenc; Figure humaine

The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, with conductor Fredrik Malmberg, performed this magnificent program in Immanuelskyrkan, Stockholm, last Monday. The audience was thrilled and responded with a standing ovation!

Yesterday we arrived in lovely Barcelona to perform the program once more, and this time in Palau de la Música Catalan. The concert was held tonight and it was a joy for all of us to sing this breathtaking music in such a beautiful hall!

Eric Ericsons Kammarkör
Fredrik Malmberg
Palau de la Música Catalan

I'm on my way back to Stockholm after a great and intense day in Gothenburg. Yesterday I had the honor being, together with amazing Peter Johansson, the guest artist of the Doctoral Conferment of Chalmers. We started off in the sunny afternoon with the main ceremony at the Gothenburg Concert Hall. I did music by Edvard Grieg as well as the magnificent duet Barcelona (Queen) together with Peter. Later on during the following banquet at Chalmers we performed a various program of music; musical, rock, folk music, jazz and classical music. Eminent pianist of the evening was Sebastian Robertsson!

Peter Johansson
Sebastian Robertsson
Chalmers

...when merry lads are playing! =)

Welcome beautiful month of May!!

This month is filled with great music and adventures! Next week I will do a short tour with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir to Barcelona, Spain, followed by a tour with Det Norske Solistkor to Bergen, Norway. This weekend I go to Gothenburg for an event with great artist and singer Peter Johansson, as well as superb Sebastian Robertsson on piano!
Among other things...! =)

Peter Johansson

As one of my last performances during this intense month of April I did music by Händel and Mozart at Musikaliska, Stockholm, this past Monday. I had the honor being a soloist together with excellent tenor Conny Thimander at the Spring concert of Täby Musikklasser. Conductor and pianist was Anders Asp and the orchestra consisted of musicians from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra!

Conny Thimander

In this beautiful and sunny Springtime the first meeting and preparation was held of the upcoming Hillborg Festival at the Stockholm Concert Hall in November. I have the honor being one of the soloists of the Anders Hillborg masterpiece Sirens, together with Ida Falk Winland, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen. I will also be a part of the final festival concert singing the beautiful piece O dessa ögon, together with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and maestro Sakari Oramo.

Hillborg Festival Stockholm Concert Hall
Anders Hillborg
Ida Falk Winland

Time flies...St Matthew Passion has reached its ending... In one way it feels as if the production at Folkoperan started yesterday. On the other hand it feels like all people involved have known each other for ages!

The last performance this last Sunday ended with a warm response from the audience with standing ovations, and on stage a strong emotional moment of love and tears... We have shared together a very special and unifying period of time. This production has ment a lot for so many people and I am so grateful for being a part of this project, for all the magnificent musical moments and for the opportunity to not only share the story from my own innermost, but also experience the opened hearts of others!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to:...my beloved husband Christoffer Holgersson (Chorus Master)!
Joshua Sofaer (Director) for your brilliant idea of St Matthew Passion, and for your love, sensibility and caring!
Maria Lindal (Musical Director) for your beautiful playing, for your brave musical ideas and for your inspiring output and energy!
...the fantastic soloists and friends forever; Janna Vettergren, Conny Thimander, Lars Arvidson, Katarina Henryson (The Real Group), Emma Nilsdotter (TRG), Anders Edenroth (TRG), Morten Vinther (TRG) and Anders Jalkéus (TRG)!!! Love you all!!
The incredible singers from Adolf Fredrik church's youth choir and Hägersten's youth choir!
The amazing orchestra Rebaroque!
And to Folkoperan for a wonderful production!

Folkoperan
The Real Group
Joshua Sofaer
Rebaroque
Janna Vettergren
Conny Thimander
Christoffer Holgersson

April has been busy so far. Last week I did four times St Matthew Passion at Folkoperan, one private event and finally the C minor Mass by Mozart in Essinge Church, Stockholm... What a joy singing the magnificent music by Bach in a sold out opera house every night!!! It was although a privilege singing the Mozart masterpiece last Sunday with excellent co-musicians as Tove Dahlberg, Fredrik Strid, Andreas Olsson, Bengt Forsberg (piano), Stefan Fred (conductor), Essinge Chamber Choir, Plica Vocalis and Catalina Langborn with orchestra! Thank you all!!

This week begun with a cold during my days off, but I managed to get well again to sing two more sold out performances of St Matthew Passion yesterday and tonight!! It's really overwhelming to experience the positive feedback and love from the audience every night!! I'm feeling so blessed! Now there's only two more shows to go.... Sunday is sold out, but there are still tickets available for tomorrow!!! Most welcome!

Folkoperan
Tove Dahlberg
Essinge kyrka

After another successful week of St Matthew Passion at Folkoperan this coming week is even more loaded with musical adventures! On Sunday I have the honor doing the Mozart masterpiece C minor Mass in Essinge Church. I addition to that I will do four new performances at Folkoperan, one private event and some teaching...!

This past weekend I had a lot of fun filming for un upcoming advertisement of music and culture! I'll let you know when it's published!

Greatest news this weekend was of course when one of Sweden's largest newspaper Dagens Nyheter chose St Matthew Passion at Folkoperan as "The best culture event of the week"!

Folkoperan