Svanholm Singers is an internationally acclaimed Swedish male-voice chamber choir founded in 1998 and based in Lund . It comprises around 20 singers, most of whom between 20 and 30 years of age. The choir is led by conductor Sofia Söderberg, and is known for its precise intonation, tonal focus, and vivid dynamics. Svanholm Singers performs concerts and tours mainly in Europe and Asia.
10-602: With a core repertoire centered around the Scandinavian and Baltic choral tradition, including collaborations with the Estonian composer Veljo Tormis , the choir promotes new compositions or arrangements for men's chorus . It has commissioned works by, among others, Knut Nystedt (Norway), Peter Bruun (Denmark), John Milne (USA), Arturo Salinas (Mexico), and Swedish composers Tobias Broström, Christian Engquist and Daniel Hjort. Svanholm Singers regularly commissions works by
20-495: A cappella . The great majority of these pieces are based on traditional ancient Estonian folksongs ( regilaulud ), either textually, melodically, or merely stylistically. His composition most often performed outside Estonia, Curse Upon Iron ( Raua needmine ) (1972), invokes ancient Shamanistic traditions to construct an allegory about the evils of war. Some of his works were banned by the Soviet government, but because folk music
30-466: Is not I who makes use of folk music, it is folk music that makes use of me." His work demonstrates his conviction that traditional Estonian and other Balto-Finnic music represents a treasure which must be guarded and nourished, and that culture may be kept alive through the medium of song. Born in Kuusalu in 1930, Tormis had a profound experience with choral music starting at an early age. His father
40-706: The Moscow Conservatory (1951–1956). He quickly acquired teaching positions at the Tallinn Music School (1955–60) and the Tallinn Music High School (1962–66), but by 1969 was supporting himself exclusively as a freelance composer. One of his pupils was composer Kuldar Sink . From his student days until his retirement from composition in 2000, Tormis composed over 500 individual choral songs, as well as other vocal and instrumental pieces, 35 film scores, and an opera. Despite
50-833: The Takarazuka International Chamber Chorus Contest (Japan 1999), the Madetoja Festival (Finland 2005), the Concorso Internazionale di Canto Corale C. A. Seghizzi (Italy 2006), the 10th International Choir Festival “Tallinn 2007” (Estonia 2007), the LV International Habaneras and Polyphony Contest of Torrevieja (Spain 2009), the Béla Bartók International Choir Competition (Hungary 2010), and
60-544: The Tolosa Choral Contest (Spain, 2016). Veljo Tormis Veljo Tormis (7 August 1930 – 21 January 2017) was an Estonian composer , regarded as one of the great contemporary choral composers and one of the most important composers of the 20th century in Estonia. Internationally, his fame arises chiefly from his extensive body of choral music, which exceeds 500 individual choral songs, most of it
70-468: The censorship of several of his more politically provocative works in the late 1970s and the 1980s, he remained an incredibly celebrated composer whose works were performed throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, he is regarded as one of the great contributors to the 20th century repertory of choral music. Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 has allowed increased access to
80-583: The conductor and members of the choir. In 2012, it announced the Svanholm Singers Composition Award (prize money $ 9,500), which attracted 46 entries from five continents. The choir was founded by conductor Eva Svanholm Bohlin in 1998, and named in honor of her father, the opera singer Set Svanholm . In 2001, Sofia Söderberg took over as conductor. With Marius Neset and Daniel Herskedal : The choir has won several awards and prizes, including Toner för miljoner (Sweden, 1998),
90-577: Was a choral director, organist , and music teacher. His delight in the contrasting timbres provided by the organ stops may also be connected to his later orchestration of choral textures, a hallmark of his mature style. Tormis began his formal musical education in 1943 at the Tallinn Music School, but was interrupted by World War II and illness. In 1949, he entered the Tallinn Conservatory and continued his studies at
100-643: Was fundamental to his style most of his compositions were accepted by the censors. More recently, Tormis' works have been performed and recorded by Tõnu Kaljuste with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir , and others. In the 1990s, Tormis began to receive commissions from some a cappella groups as the King's Singers and the Hilliard Ensemble . Tormis famously said of his settings of traditional melodies and verse: "It
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