Fredrik Malmberg

Principal Chorus Master

A passion for unusual repertoire combined with a broad knowledge of a variety of periods and styles has made Fredrik Malmberg one of Scandinavia’s most exciting choral conductors.

In 2007, he was appointed Conductor of the Danish Radio Choir and of DR Vocal Ensemble, the newest highly acclaimed European chorus. His first concert with this ensemble included Italian vocal music from five centuries and was very well received by audiences and critics alike.

Fredrik Malmberg has made guest appearances in Russia, Ukraine, Japan and the Middle East as well as in a number of European countries. As well as appearing with his own ensembles, he has conducted the Swedish Radio Choir, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, the Finnish Radio Choir, Concerto Copenhagen, the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

In 2010, Fredrik Malmberg will be conducting the Swedish Radio Choir and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor in Moscow. He will also continue his collaboration with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir with concerts at various festivals, and with his own ensemble Vokalharmonin FM he will record a CD featuring specially commissioned music by the Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt. The ensemble will also be touring in Sweden and abroad.

Fredrik Malmberg has a profound interest in the interplay between instruments and voices. Over the course of his career he has given numerous performances and made recordings of oratorios by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Haydn, which clearly reflects his motto as a conductor: a historically well-founded performance guided by the doctrine of musical rhetoric and which often challenges convention.

His repertoire also includes symphony music by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Britten.

His commitment to 20th century music and the contemporary repertoire includes music by Pдrt, Messiaen, Nono, Cage, Felman and Reich as well as pieces composed especially for Fredrik Malmberg and his ensembles.

In 2004 he founded the Harmony of Voices (Vokalharmonin), an ensemble that focuses on early and contemporary music. The ensemble roused immediate interest and was appointed “artist in residence” by the Swedish Radio 2004-2006. Harmony of Voices’ first CD, featuring music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, received high praise from critics abroad as well as at home, as did his second CD featuring music by Monteverdi and Carissimi. Recently the ensemble released its first CD featuring a contemporary repertoire; together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra the ensemble recorded new music by Swedish composer Kent Olofsson. Harmony of Voices was named Sweden’s “Choir of the Year 2007” and, in addition to touring Sweden, the ensemble has also made guest appearances in Italy, Denmark and Germany.