Margareta Bengtson (born 1966) (formerly Margareta Jalkéus, having married and divorced Real Group bandmate Anders Jalkeus) is the former soprano of

The Real Group The Real Group is an a cappella group from Sweden. Members are Emma Nilsdotter, Lisa Östergren, Anders Edenroth, Anton Forsberg and Jānis Strazdiņš. The group's members compose and arrange most of their songs. They sing in English and Swedis ...

, a professional a cappella vocal

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

quintet from Sweden. She sang with the group for over twenty years and has recently announced her departure from the world-renowned ensemble.

History and Education

Bengtson comes from a very musical family. Her mother taught voice for many years and her father, now retired, was once the principal

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

in the Royal Swedish Opera's orchestra. At age ten, she began studies at

Adolf Fredrik's Music School Adolf Fredrik's Music School ( sv, Adolf Fredriks Musikklasser) is a general municipal junior high school ( sv, grundskola) in Stockholm, Sweden with a focus on choral music, and highly competitive admission based on audition in singing and mu ...

in Stockholm, where she attended for ten years. She began playing the harp at 12. In 1984, she entered the solo-harp class at the

Royal College of Music in Stockholm The Royal College of Music, Stockholm ( sv, Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm) is the oldest institution of higher education in music in Sweden, founded in 1771 as the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The institution was mad ...

, where she studied for 5 years. The same year she became a member of the vocal ensemble The Real Group. In 1987 the group was offered a course of advanced study at the college and this continued until 1989, when they gave three diploma concerts in Stockholm. The Real Group has been a professional ensemble since the

Release of first Solo Album

On October 25, 2006, Bengtson released her first solo jazz album entitled "I'm Old Fashioned" with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

. For her first solo project, Bengtson has recorded ten American jazz standards. All arrangements of which are attributed to members of the band, who all are from Sweden as well. Pål Svenre is the producer

References

Swedish jazz singers Royal College of Music, Stockholm alumni Living people 1966 births {{Sweden-singer-stub