Mats Bergström
Mats Bergstöm is one of the most legendary of Swedish guitarists and one of the great musicians of our time. He has a solid classical guitar background that inclues a MFA from Stockholm Royal College of Music, debut in Wigmore Hall 1983, release of a first solo recording in 1986, and postgraduate studies with Sharon Isbin at Julliard. He has recently released acclaimed recordings of his own transcritions of the complete Partitas and Sonatas for violin solo by J.S. Bach. A glimpse of his discography* reveals a musicianship with endless dimensions, with a focus on chamber music and song accompaniment. For many years, he has worked in different genres with the foremost singers in Sweden. Jazz music is a part of Mats’ musical roots and in 2010 he recorded the first CD in a series ”Songs without words” together with Georg Riedel. Mats is a very appreciated masterclass teacher, and we are extemely happy to be able to welcome him to the Seminar.
Georg Riedel
While Mats Bergström – deservingly – can be regarded as a legendary guitarist, Georg Riedel is a true living musical legend. With his double bass he has literally been part of the foundation of Swedish musical life for well over half a century. He has performed with all the best jazz musicians, and the recordings of folk music from different countries he made with jazz pianist Jan Johansson are already essential parts of Swedish musical history. On Jazz på Svenska, recorded in 1962, you find a now classic version of Emigrantvisan, well known to previous participants of Nykoping Guitar Seminar as part of Tim Phelan’s The Journey. After the sad and early passing of Jan Johansson in 1968, Georg Riedel took over the composing of music to the films over Astrid Lindgren’s famous characters such as Pippi Longstocking (although Jan Johansson composed the main theme) and That boy Emil. Over the years, he has composed innumerable children’s songs as well as operas and works for choir. For this year’s seminar orchestra, he has composed a special piece inspired by one of his most loved songs – Fattig Bonddräng. This is a unique privilege and honour for us!
Jan-Olof Andersson
Singer and guitarist Jan-Olof Andersson has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Olrog scholarship for his outstanding interpretations of the Swedish song tradition. Not only is he a singer who truly captures the essence of this tradition, but also an extremely fine guitarist. Jan-Olof was a natural choice when the idea came up to present a musical tribute to the memory and 100th birthday of Swedish singer and songwriter Ulf Peder Olrog.
Timothy Phelan
Tim Phelan is one of Canada’s foremost guitarists, composers, and conductors. Since his first recording at 18 years old, as a soloist with Quebec City Symphony Orchestra, he has performed with numerous renowned orchestras, as a soloist, and as a chamber musician all over the world . His originial compositions for Nyköping Guitar Seminar, The Journey and Fantasía para una dama, have been performed in numerous important guitar festivals in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. His performance of tango music at Nyköping guitar seminar in 2016 with flute, viola, cello and dancers was an enormous success, and led to the formation of the AuroraPolaris Duo with cellist Kristin Malmborg. Tim is one of the cornerstones of the Nykoping Seminar as a composer and conductor for the seminar orchestra, and as a favourite performer. The performance in the 2018 Seminar of his Songs of Struggle, with Eva Norée as narrator, was truly unforgettable. This year, Timothy will feature in our opening night concert as not only a performer, but also conductor and composer! His arrangements will be featured with the guitar orchestra in our final concert of the seminar.
Kristin Malmborg
Swedish cellist Kristin Malmborg has performed with acclaimed orchestras including Svenska Kammarorkestern and Kungliga Filharmonin in Stockholm. She has toured throughout Europe with a number of chamber music ensembles and with Anders Ekborg, Sterfan Nilsson, and Bengt Magnusson in ”Stilla jul”. She met Timothy Phelan at Nyköping Guitar Seminar 2016, and their enjoyment of performing together led to the formation of the AuroraPolaris duo. Since then the duo has delighted audiences with tours in Germany and Canada, and we are immensely happy and proud to be able to present them in Nyköping, where it all started.
Emma Rush
Emma Rush has established herself as one of Canada’s top guitarists. . Known for her innovative programming and powerful stage presence, along with her warm sound and virtuosic technique, an event with Emma Rush is one to remember. Recent touring highlights include the Altamira Shanghai International Guitar Festival (China) Festival de Guitarras Lagos de Moreno (Mexico), and a prestigious concert at the Internationales Gitarren Symposion, Iserlohn (Germany). Emma Rush has a great interest in folk music expressed with the guitar. Her newest recording, Canadiana, showcases Canadian songs arranged for solo guitar and a new work dedicated to her by Canadian composer William Beauvais. In the 2017 Nyköping Guitar Seminar, Emma Rush was featured as acclaimed soloist in Fantasía para una dama, composed by Timothy Phelan and dedicated to her and the seminar orchestra, and she returned in 2018 for a solo recital that was acclaimed by audience and critics alike. Emma is, along with Tim Phelan, one of the cornestones of the seminar and we look forward to hearing her in our opening night concert.
Elena Cásoli
Italian guitarist Elena Cásoli is professor of Guitar and Contemporary Music Interpretation at the School of Performing Arts in Berlin, and is very active on the international concert scene. As a teacher, she focuses on each student as an individual with his or her own characteristics, qualities and interests, to bring out their unique personal profile. On stage, she is extremely versatile and is well-versed in many aspects of guitar playing, from classical solo performances to contemporary multi-media projects. Since 2011, she has been a highly appreciated and returning guest amongst the teachers and performers at the Swedish Guitar and Lute Festival and Oskarshamn Guitar Festival. We are happy and proud to welcome her back for the second time in Nyköping.
Eric Lammers
Eric Lammers is one of the leading guitarists working in Sweden today. His recent solo performances have focused on the music of Stephen Dodgson. He is a very experienced musical educator, specializing in harmony and counterpoint. He has long been a professor at the Oskarshamn Folkhögskola in Sweden, as teacher in classical guitar, solfège and music-theory. He has also worked as a teacher at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Music. Eric Lammers is a frequent guest at the annual festival of the Swedish Guitar and Lute Festival, and has also been the chairman of that organization since 2015. He studied at the Music College in Utrecht, The Netherlands and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. For many years, he led the very appreciated Oskarshamn Guitar Festival, and since 2016, he is regularly invited to the Nykoping Guitar Seminar.
Eva Norée
Eva Norée, previously Eva Möller, is another true musical legend that we are happy to present at Nyköping Guitar Seminar. She introduced flamenco guitar playing in Sweden, and is regarded as our foremost player in this genre. She has performed and toured with many great artists, including the great Miriam Makeba. She is also a composer, arranger, poet and translator of works by Federico Garcia Lorca, and Juán Ramón Jiménez, whose poem Platery y yo, with music by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, will be performed at the Friday concert. Her narration of Denis Goldberg’s text in Tim Phelan’s Songs of Struggle, at the 2018 Seminar was pure magic, and there is more to come this year!
Danielle Cumming
Danielle Cumming is a Canadian performing and recording guitarist, also very well known as an educator. She is a guest at numerous international guitar festivals and is a regular faculty member at the Gitarrensymposium Iserlohn. She holds a Doctorate in Music Performance from the McGill University and a Masters in performance from University of Toronto, where she studied with Norbert Craft. Danielle is Associate Professor at Salisbury University, where she is the founder and director of the Guitar Festival and Guitar in the Gallery series. This year, she will share a very special experience at the Seminar – the very much appreciated Guitar from Scratch (or At your Level) workshop, in the spirit of welcoming all guitarists, regardless of their level, to the Seminar. We are extremely happy to be able to invite Danielle for the first time!
Alberto Mesirca
Seminar director Håkan Odeberg first learned of Alberto Mesirca while watching guitar videos on YouTube. He found a video of a young man sitting outdoors playing a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti and was so taken by the playing that he immediately contacted him to join the seminar. About Mesirca, the American Record Guide has written: ”Prodigiously talented Mesirca…the best Scarlatti I have heard on solo guitar”. Born and educated in Italy, with further studies at the Academy of Kassel, with Wofgang Lendle, he found early success and was the winner of the ”Golden Guitar”, and ”Best Upcoming Artist”, in 2009. Since then, he has had an impressive career, cooperating with some of the foremost musicians of our time, in different genres of music. We are happy to be able to welcome him to Nyköping. Of course, his Friday concert will start with – a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti!
Flauguissimo Duo
Flauguissimo Duo was founded in 2008 by Swedish guitarist Johan Löfving and his wife, flutenist Yu-Wei Hu, and they have since received remarkable acclaim for their sublime, sensitive and yet lively and attention- catching playing, both of historical and contemporary music. They have performed in a great number of festivals and won numerous prestigeous prizes, including International Early Music Competition in Middelburg/The Netherlands 2011, Uppsala International Guitar Competition and London International Competition 2012. They have performed in many prestigeous halls, like the Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall, and now we look forward to hearing them in Nyköping, together with their friends Jonathan Bought and Ioannis Theodoridis.
Jonatan Bougt
Jonatan Bougt, former student of Bo Hansson, is another young award winning Swedish guitarist. He won the Jörgen Rörby prize of the Swedish Guitar and Lute Society in 2014 and has since won a number of prestigious prizes. After studies with Carlos Bonell and Chris Stell he graduated from the Royal College of Music in London
in July 2017 and will continue his Masters Degree on theorbo with Jakob Lindberg. He performs in operas, as soloist, in chamber music and in the acclaimed Bought&Bergek Duo. Their interpretations of Swedish and Brazilian folk music has been highly praised, both in Scandinavia and Brazil, not least in Nyköping in 2018, and we welcome Jonatan back to this edition of the Seminar.
Ioannis Theodoridis
Ioannis Theodoridis, also a former student of Bo Hansson, is a graduate from the Master of Performance program at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Chris Stell and Gary Ryan. He has won many prestigious awards including the Lennox Berkeley Guitar Award and has toured extensively both as soloist and chamber musician. He is passionate about new music, and his trio, What Guitar Trio, has performed several world premiers at important locations including Wigmore Hall. His performances have been described as ”Sensivitive, nuanced account…showing precision and elegance..”, He is already known to the Nyköping audience through his enchanting performance at the 2018 seminar, and as acclaimed soloist in Erland von Koch’s Guitar Concerto performed with Filharmoniska Sällskapet in November 2018.
Ekaterina Vasilyeva
Ekaterina Vasilyeva studied guitar at the Music Academy of Moscow, and continued her studies with Jan-Olof Eriksson at the Music Academy in Piteå, where she took her Masters degree in 2012. She is regarded as one of the most talented and promising young guitarists in Sweden, and was finalist in the competition of Uppsala Interantional Gitarrfestival in 2010 and other international competitions. She performs both as soloist, in duo and with chamber music. Her performance at Nykoping Guitar Seminar 2016 praised by Göran Söllscher, and her interpretation of Roland Dyens’ Felicidad delighted our seminar guests. Her concert at the 2018 seminar was a great success and she joins us this year as a teacher.
Thomas Garnbeck
The duo part of “The Journey”, to be performed in the opening concert in arrangement for guitar duo, flute, cello, choir and narrator, the duo will consist of Emma Rush and Swedish Guitarist Thomas Garnbeck, reknown specialist in modern guitar music, especially the music of Roland Dyens, and a very experienced duo and ensemble player.
Michael Neumann
Michael Neumann studied flute education with guitar as the second instrument at Stockholms Musikpedagogiska Institut. After his bachelors degree he continued studying conducting for Claes Merithz, and flute for William Bennett (Royal Academy of Music; London) and Gerards Schaub (professor in Gothenburg). Michael is now active as an educator, chamber musician and band leader. Since 2017, Michael has been living in China, where he regularly works with musicians from Europe, Asia and North America.