FESTIVAL OF SWEDISH SINGERS CONCERT SPECIAL PERFORMERS
Akademiska kören i Stockholm, Guest Chorus
Akademiska kören i Stockholm was formed in 1931. It was Sweden’s first mixed student chorus. It was named Stockholmsstudenternas körsällskap (the Stockholm Student’s Chorus Society). The name was changed to Akademiska kören (The Academic Chorus) in 1937.
One of the most prominent names in Sweden’s musical life, Johannes Norrby, took over the chorus in 1943 and led it for more than 20 successful years. In the 1960’s Akademiska kören became open for everyone and was no longer a pronounced student’s chorus.
Over the years, Akademiska kören has been doing lots of touring. It has worked with many opera soloists and well-known artists and musicians. Its 75th anniversary, in November 2004, was celebrated with a magnificent concert at the Stockholm Concert Hall. In 2021 they celebrated the 85th anniversary at the Berwald Hall in Stockholm, to which they invited three other choruses to form a chorus of 120 singers.
In 2008 Håkan Sund took over the baton, with great enthusiasm. He brought his own ideas and visions on how to improve a chorus. He found new ways of stimulating the singers, forming quartets and smaller groups, letting them perform at concerts. Sund also increased the chorus’ repertoire to include everything from large choral works to opera and musicals to jazz, pop and Swedish ‘visor’. During recent years the chorus has been touring in Scandinavia and to France and the United States.
Håkan Sund – Pianist Conductor Composer Arranger
As a pianist, I have appeared in, among others:
Carnegie Hall New York Chicago Orchestra Hall Musikverein Vienna Salle Pleyel Paris Queen Elisabeth Hall London China Japan Hong Kong Singapore Canada Germany Portugal Hungary Poland Norway Denmark Finland Iceland Faroe Islands
Konserthusen i Stockholm Gothenburg Uppsala Halsingborg Gröna Lund Liseberg Borgholm’s castle ruins
I have done concerts with:
Barbara Hendricks, Elisabeth Soderstrom also LP, Kjerstin Dellert, Birgit Nordin, Sylvia Vrethammar, Sylvia Lindenstrand, Ingvar Wixell, Nicholas Gedda, Hakan Hagegard, Barbara Bonney, Britt Marie Aruhn, Erik Saeden, Ragnar Ulfung, Bengt Rundgren, Martti Wallen, Sten Wahlund, Erland Hagegard, Edith Thllag, Hans Josefsson, Stefan Dahlberg, Lena Hoel, Gunnel Bohman, Helena Dose, Margareta Jonth also LP, Tito Beltran, Loa Falkman, Marcus Jupither, Bengt Krantz, Anna Eklund-Tarantino, Malena Ernman, Olle Persson, Mikael Samuelsson, Elin Rombo, Susanne Ryden, Michael Weinius and Jonas Degerfeldt
I have also played music with:
Toots Thielemanns, Povel Ramel, John Allan, Georg Riedel, Egil Johansen, Mikael Lind, Lars Fresk and Putte Wickman
I have done improvisation concerts with:
Bengt Hallberg in Stockholm Uppsala Gävle and Vara Roland Pontinen i Stockholm
Soloists at my performances as an orchestra conductor have been:
Ann Gjevang The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Siv Wennberg Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Gert Craaford Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wille Sundling The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leo Winland Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Victor Borge Radio symphonies also TV, Christian Lindberg Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Hillevi Martinpelto, Marianne Myrsten, Hans Leygraf, Greta Ericsson, Lars Ross, Kerstin Andersson, Niklas Bjorling Rygert and Krister St. Hill
I have been a lecturer in piano playing, all genres, at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. I was awarded the Royal Academy of Music’s medal. I have been the main teacher at the Swedish Association of Singers’ courses in choral conducting. Upon graduating there, I received an award “for versatile musical talent” – the first pedagogue ever to receive this award.
I have been a soloist rehearser at the Royal Opera for a couple of years before I started teaching at the Academy of Music.
I have composed solo songs, choral and orchestral pieces. I have arranged many songs for choir.
I have conducted Martha, Regementets dotter, Laderlappen, Merry Wives in Windsor, The Magic Flute, Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto .(“the Verdi event of the year” wrote Carl Gunnar .Ahlen in Svenska Dagbladet after the performance at Sodra Teatern in Stockholm)
I have recorded several records with vocal soloists, choirs and orchestras. A solo CD on BIS with piano improvisations: Magic of the Moment
I have conducted the following choirs:
The radio choir, Eric Ericsson’s Chamber Choir, Adolf Fredrik’s Bach Choir, Stockholm Philharmonic Choir and Orphei Drangar
Chemist
I also have a civil engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the section for chemistry. Worked with blood analysis before I started at the Academy of Music.
Niklas Björling Rygert
Niklas Björling Rygert’s education was with the NBV Theatre School, Operastudio 67 and the University College of Opera in Stockholm, Sweden. He is Sweden’s foremost character tenor and he belongs to the permanent soloist’s ensemble at the Swedish Royal Opera since 1999, where he sang closer to 50 roles in about 800 performances. His role as Mime in Wagner’s Siegfried in 2006 drew international attention and brought him to Valencia, Spain, where he in 2008 and 2009 performed Mime in The Rheingold and in Siegfried under the baton of Zubin Mehta.
Niklas has appeared as a guest singer in Israel (invited by Mehta), Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Poland, Spain and Italy, as well as in Sweden at other opera stages.
He as received quite a few awards, such as from The Friends of the Opera, the Masonic Order, the Uno Stjernqvist Scholarship Fund and the Gunn Wållgren Scholarship Fund. In 2027 he won the prestigious Opera Prize from the Swedish journal “Opera”, for his achievement as Mime at the Royal Opera.
Recently, Niklas has performed as Tobias Ragg in “Sweeney Todd”, at the Royal Opera.