A Jubilant Century with the Swedish Radio Choir
In 2025, the Swedish Radio Choir will celebrate its centenary with several concerts during the season. In the first, Music Director Kaspars Putniņš leads the choir in a sacred programme that shows the stylistic versatility of the ensemble: from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat to Arvo Pärt’s Te deum.
Location: Kungsholm’s church
No ticket sales will take place on site, but you can purchase your digital ticket until the concert starts.
Participants
32 professional choristers make up the Swedish Radio Choir: a unique, dynamic instrument hailed by music-lovers and critics all over the world. The Swedish Radio Choir performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, as well as on tours all over the country and the world. Also, they are heard regularly by millions of listeners on Swedish Radio P2, Berwaldhallen Play and globally through the EBU.
The award-winning Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš was appointed Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir in 2020. Since January 2019, its choirmaster is French orchestral and choral conductor Marc Korovitch, with responsibility for the choir’s vocal development.
The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as Sweden’s inaugural radio broadcasts, and gave its first concert in May that year. Multiple acclaimed and award-winning albums can be found in the choir’s record catalogue. Late 2023 saw the release of Kaspars Putniņš first album with the choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra, recorded with organist Johan Hammarström.
Kaspars Putniņš is Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir since 2020, and newly appointed Chief Conductor of the Latvian Radio Choir with whom he has worked closely for more than 30 years. He was formerly Chief Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir in 2014–2021. He regularly appears with the RIAS Kammerchor, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, Collegium Vocale Gent, Danish National Vocal Ensemble & Choir, Netherlands Radio Choir, NDR Vokalensemble Hamburg, Chorwerk Ruhr, among others.
While Putniņš is a skilled interpreter of a wide choral repertoire, from Renaissance polyphony through to romantic music, his foremost goal has always been promoting new and outstanding choral music. He has forged close relationships with Baltic and Nordic composers including Maija Einfelde, Mārtiņš Viļums, Gundega Šmite, Toivo Tulev, Lasse Thoresen, Gavin Bryars and Andris Dzenitis. He has also initiated several drama projects in collaboration with visual and theatre artists, and has worked extensively with young singers and conductors, including as Artistic Director of the Tenso Europe Chamber Choir in 2013–2017.
Autumn 2023 saw the release of Putniņš’ first album recording with the Swedish Radio Choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra and Vier doppelchörige Gesänge, recorded with Swedish organist Johan Hammarström. His wide-ranging discography also includes recordings of Pēteris Vasks’ Māte saule, Jonathan Harvey’s The Angels, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil and Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir. His recording with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir of Schnittke’s Psalms of Repentance and Arvo Pärt’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis was awarded both the Gramophone Award and Diapason d’Or in 2018.
Kaspars Putniņš has been awarded two of Latvia’s foremost awards for his musicianship: the Grand Music Prize Lielā mūzikas balva and the Council of Ministers Award for Achievements in Culture and Science. For his contributions to Estonian music life as Chief Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, he was awarded the Cultural Endowment of Estonia’s Annual Award in 2019. Putniņš grew up in Riga, Latvia, and was only 26 years old when he was first hired as conductor of the Latvian Radio Choir.
Sopranen och hovsångerskan Elin Rombo rolldebuterade säsongen 2023–2024 som Gilda i Giuseppe Verdis Rigoletto på Kungliga Operan och som Klärchen i operetten Hotell Vita Hästen på Folkoperan. Säsongen innan rolldebuterade hon som Violetta i Verdis La traviata och som Titania i Benjamin Brittens En midsommarnattsdröm.
På Kungliga Operans scen har Rombo sjungit en rad olika roller, däribland Cunegonde i Leonard Bernsteins Candide, Régine Saint Laurent i Rufus Wainwrights Prima Donna och Agnès i George Benjamins Written on Skin. Hon har gästat Paris nationalopera som Anicia Eritea i Francesco Cavallis Eliogabalo och Berlins statsopera som Nattens drottning i Mozarts Trollflöjten. På Malmö Opera har hon bland annat sjungit Hittebarnet i Catharina Backmans På andra sidan havet och Robert Lax i urpremiären av Philip Glass Circus Days and Nights.
Som konsertsångerska har Elin Rombo framträtt med flera av världens mest framstående orkestrar, i exempelvis Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem med Chicagos symfoniorkester och Riccardo Muti, Franz Schuberts Mässa G-dur med Colin Davis och Orchestre de Paris, samt Mozarts Mässa c-moll med Bayerska radions symfoniorkester. Hon har mottagit en rad utmärkelser, däribland Jenny Lind- och Birgit Nilsson-stipendierna samt medaljen Litteris et Artibus.
Approximate concert length: 1 h 10 min
Tickets
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