Martin Fröst (born 14 December 1970) is a Swedish

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

ist and conductor. He is principal conductor of the

Swedish Chamber Orchestra The Swedish Chamber Orchestra ( sv, Svenska kammarorkestern) is a Swedish orchestra based in Örebro. Established under its current name in 1995, its primary concert venue is the Örebro Concert Hall. The historical precursor ensembles to the orche ...

. He is also a developer of multimedia projects with music, choreography and light design, in which he appears as a clarinetist, conductor, copywriter and "master of the ceremony". He crosses musical and medial borders, willing to experiment.

Early life and education

Fröst was born in

Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History Th ...

, Sweden. As a youth, Fröst began musical studies on violin at age 5. At age 8, he started to learn the clarinet. Fröst switched to clarinet after hearing a recording of Jack Brymer playing Mozart's

Clarinet Concerto A clarinet concerto is a concerto for clarinet; that is, a musical composition for solo clarinet together with a large ensemble (such as an orchestra or concert band). Albert Rice has identified a work by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli as possibly th ...

. Fröst studied with Hans Deinzer in Germany and Sölve Kingstedt and Kjell-Inge Stevensson in Stockholm. His first concerto performance was at age 17 with the Royal Academy of Music Orchestra.

Career

Fröst's work in contemporary music includes collaborations with

Anders Hillborg Per Anders Hillborg (born 31 May 1954) is one of Sweden’s leading composers. Education Anders Hillborg was born in Sollentuna, and studied composition, counterpoint and electronic music at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm from 1976 to ...

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...

Kalevi Aho Kalevi Ensio Aho (born 9 March 1949) is a Finnish composer. Early years Aho began his interest in music at the age of ten, when he discovered a mandolin in his home and began to teach himself how to play it. He soon was taken under the tutelag ...

Rolf Martinsson Rolf Martinsson (born 1 May 1956 in Glimåkra, Skåne, Sweden) is a Music of Sweden, Swedish composer. Martinsson studied composition at Malmö Academy of Music, Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University 1981-85 under Brian Ferneyhough, Sven-David S ...

, Bent Sørensen, Victoria Borisova-Ollas,

Karin Rehnqvist Karin Rehnqvist (born 21 August 1957) is a Swedish composer and conductor of classical music. She composes chamber music, orchestral works, music for the stage, and particularly vocal music, incorporating elements of folk music such as the vocal te ...

and

Sven-David Sandström Sven-David Sandström (30 October 1942, in Motala – 10 June 2019) was a Swedish classical composer of operas, oratorios, ballets, and choral works, as well as orchestral works. Life and career Sandström studied art history and musicology at ...

. In May 2014, he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, the first clarinetist so honoured. Fröst was artistic leader of the Vinterfest music festival for 10 seasons, concluding his tenure in 2015. He became joint artistic director of the Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival in 2010, and served in that until 2015. He has been a conductor-in-association with the

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra ( sv, Norrköpings Symfoniorkester) is a Swedish professional symphony orchestra. It is based at the concert hall De Geerhallen, in the center of Norrköping. History The orchestra was founded in 1912, a ...

. In May 2017, the

announced the appointment of Fröst as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2019–2020 season, with an initial contract of 3 seasons. In the United States, in October 2014, Fröst first appeared with the

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) is a full-time professional chamber orchestra based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In collaboration with five Artistic Partners, the orchestra's musicians present more than 130 concerts and educational programs ea ...

(SPCO). Based on this concert, in November 2014, the SPCO named Fröst one of its Artistic Partners, effective with the 2015–2016 season, with an initial contract of 4 years. He was supposed to have made his first appearance in November 2015, but was unable to perform due to Meniere's Disease. The effects of this ailment delayed Fröst's appearances as an SPCO artistic partner until February 2017.

Albums

* Penderecki (CD-652, 1994) * French Beauties and Swedish Beasts (CD-693, 1994) * Close Up (CD-744, 1997) * 'Hekas! – Östgöta Symphonic Wind Ensemble (CD-818, 1997) * Clarinet Concertos dedicated to Benny Goodman (CD-893, 1998) * The Pied Piper of the Opera – Opera paraphrases on the clarinet (CD-1053, 2000) * James MacMillan – The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (CD-1169, 2002) * Mozart – Clarinet Concerto & Quintet (SACD 1283, 2003) * Schumann – Works for Clarinet & Piano (CD-944, 2003) * Holmboe – Concertos for Piano, Clarinet and Oboe; Beatus Parvo (CD-1176, 2004) * Brahms – Clarinet Sonatas & Trio (SACD-1353, 2005) * Karin Rehnqvist – Arktis Arktis! (CD-1396, 2005) * Weber – Clarinet Concertos (SACD-1523, 2006) * Nielsen & Aho Clarinet Concertos (SACD-1463, 2007) * Christopher Rouse – Orchestral Music (CD-1386, 2008) * Crusell – The Three Clarinet Concertos (SACD-1723, 2008) * Fröst & Friends (SACD-1823, 2010) * Martin Fröst – Dances to a Black Pipe (SACD-1863, 2011) * Martin Fröst – Plays Mozart (SACD-1893, 2013) * Martin Fröst – Roots (Sony, 2016) * Martin Fröst, Lucas Debargue, Janine Jansen & Torleif Thedeen, Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) (Sony, 2019) * Martin Fröst & Concerto Köln – Vivaldi (Sony, 2020)

Awards

* 1st Priz
Geneva Competition
(1997) * Nippon Music Award (1997) for the recording of the clarinet concerto by Carl Nieslsen *

Litteris et Artibus Litteris et Artibus is a Swedish royal medal established in 1853 by Charles XV of Sweden, who was then crown prince. It is awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture, especially music, dramatic art and literature. The ob ...

(2012) * The

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

newspape
Dagens Nyheter

Culture Award
(

)
Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2003
* BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist 2003–2005 *

Léonie Sonning Music Prize The Léonie Sonning Music Prize, or Sonning Award, which is recognized as Denmark's highest musical honor, is given annually to an international composer or musician. It was first awarded in 1959 to composer Igor Stravinsky. Laureates are now s ...

2014 *

ECHO Klassik The Echo Klassik, often stylized as ECHO Klassik, was Germany's major classical music award in 22 categories. The award, presented by the , was held annually, usually in October or September, separate from its parent award, the Echo Music Prize E ...

Instrumentalist of the Year Award in the category clarinet, for the CD "Roots" (2016) *

Opus Klassik ''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.). Opus or OPUS may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...

(2021), Instrumentalist of the Year Award in the category clarinet, for the CD "Vivaldi" (2019/2020)

Projects

Every two to three years, since 2013, Fröst staged a project in which he works as a clarinetist, conductor, lyricist, "master of ceremony", actor and occasionally as a dancer. He performs in collaboration with the

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra ( sv, Kungliga Filharmonikerna or , literal translations, "Royal Philharmonic" or "Royal Philharmonic Orchestra") is a Swedish orchestra based in Stockholm. Its principal venue is the Konserthuset. Hi ...

, composers, choreographers and lighting technicians. The projects presented are named Dollhouse, Genesis, Retropia and Exodus.

Dollhouse (2013)

At Dollhouse, compositions by Göran Fröst,

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( or ; 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His b ...

, Bent Sörensen,

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...

and Anders Hillborg, as well as choreography and light, became one unit. It was Fröst's first collaboration with the lighting designer and choreographer Linus Fellbom. The world premiere was in October 2013 with a duration of approx. 1:35 h. The artist says on his website: "Dollhouse is very much about liberation, both in its physical and symbolical form, about the invisible threads that hold us to the earth, tie us together and can wear away. It is a concert with movement as its center, a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

in the footsteps of

Petrushka Petrushka ( rus, Петру́шка, p=pʲɪtˈruʂkə, a=Ru-петрушка.ogg) is a stock character of Russian folk puppetry. Italian puppeteers introduced it in the first third of the 19th century. While most core characters came from Italy ...

and

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

Genesis (2015)

Genesis is a program of works from a millennium of music history, starting with Greek music of the 2nd century (

Mesomedes Mesomedes of Crete ( grc, Μεσομήδης ὁ Κρής) was a Greek citharode and lyric poet and composer of the early 2nd century AD in Roman Greece. Prior to the discovery of the Seikilos epitaph in the late 19th century, the hymns of Mesome ...

) to compositions by

Hildegard von Bingen Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...

Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesh ...

, Piazzolla,

Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...

, Lutoslawski and Hillborg, to name a few. In between folk music by Bartók and klezmer dances by Goran Fröst. Old and new music and music from all over the world are combined. "It’s all connected, and the music also reflects people", says Fröst. The performance lasts approx. 1:42 h.

Retropia (2018)

Retropia,

Retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

and

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

, looking back, but also designing future forms of music. In the retrospect, we hear the overture to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, followed by Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. The present of music depicts: ''Exodus: Departure'' for solo clarinet (premiere) by the Russian born composer Victoria Borisova-Ollas, who lives in Sweden, ''Angelus novus'' for chamber orchestra by the Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad and ''Nomadia'' for clarinet and chamber orchestra by Göran and Martin Fröst, while the future is hinted at in ''Emerge'' for clarinet, orchestra and ''gestrument'' by Jesper Nordin. Motion sensors on the clarinet ensure that every movement Fröst is converted into music. "In ''Emerge'' me and Martin have been trying to find the future of music, blend technology through my technology gestrument – gesture-instrument – where you can play on a virtual orchestra while playing on his clarinet and conducting the live orchestra and to find new ways of expression," says Nordin. Fröst: "The piece provides a gestrument, it is called 'Space in the Air' and contains music DNA. When I touch the air, it turns into sound, created by an infrared camera. I can play with my fingers in the air, for which I need a choreographer for the movements. And that, too, is a kind of future for music. At the beginning of the piece I say, where does the music go? Can I feel it? Is it going to the future? Can I touch her? And then I literally put my hand in the air between me and the audience and suddenly there is a sound. So it is a conversation between me, the gestrument, the room and the orchestra behind me. It's actually pretty exciting." The premiere was on 18 May 2018 in Stockholm. The performance lasts approx. 1:45 hours with the addition of the Klezmer dance No. 2 for clarinet and string orchestra by Göran Fröst.

Xodus (2022)

A year late due to the pandemic, the project, originally Exodus, came on stage under the name "XODUS (The Way Out Lies Within)" on 5 May 2022 at Stockholm's

Konserthuset The Stockholm Concert Hall ( sv, Stockholms konserthus) is the main hall for orchestral music in Stockholm, Sweden. With a design by Ivar Tengbom chosen in competition, inaugurated in 1926, the Hall is home to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic ...

with the participation of more than 100 people and live painting on a large screen, performance time about 75 minutes. Texts with English subtitles and live images are by the multi-artist Jesper Waldersten, very well known in Sweden. Fröst performed as a clarinetist, conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and a chamber choir, and again as "master of ceremonies." Konserthuset has posted a video of the performance online, as well as a brief introduction indicating all the music titles arranged for this work. These include compositions by

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

and

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

on the one hand, on the other hand, contemporary pieces by the Swedish composers

Hans Ek Hans Ek (born 1964 in Uppsala, Sweden), is a conductor and arranger working in the meeting between classical music, jazz, pop and folk music. He has worked with symphony orchestras in Sweden, as well as in Norway, Denmark, Britain, Canada, Lith ...

, Goran Fröst, Annamaria Kowalsky, as well as an arrangement of traditional pieces by the Spanish clarinettist and arranger Alberto Álvarez García. The Swedish lighting designer Linus Fellbom, who works mainly in theater, opera and dance, provided lighting design and direction. One review says: "Musician Martin Fröst and artist Jesper Waldersten push the boundaries of what a classical concert can be."

Martin Fröst Foundation

In 2019, Fröst set up a foundation whose goal is to give children and young people in Sweden and other countries the opportunity to receive music lessons and access to instruments.

Personal life

Fröst and his family live in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

References

External links

Martin Fröst's official website

Harrison Parrott agency biography of Martin Fröst

Svensk Konsertdirektion AB agency biography of Martin Fröst

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra biography of Martin Fröst

'Facing the music: Martin Fröst'. ''The Guardian'', 2 February 2015

Jim Farber, 'Martin Fröst: The Color of Clarinet'. San Francisco Classical Voice blog, 6 June 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, Martin Living people Swedish classical clarinetists Litteris et Artibus recipients 1970 births Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize Winners of the Geneva International Music Competition BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists 20th-century clarinetists 21st-century clarinetists 21st-century Swedish male musicians 20th-century Swedish male musicians People with Ménière's Disease