Choir News Spring 2026
Spring brings new music! Ulrika Emanuelsson, Jesper Hagberg Mattsvåg, Alvin Vikman, and Kjell Perder have set music for choirs looking for a challenge.
In her work Som den fria vinden, Ulrika Emanuelsson has once again drawn inspiration from Lotta Lotass (as in the suite I det vitt ofyllda), setting two stanzas from her poetry collection Nya dikter to music. The verses begin with the repeated phrase "Kunde jag..." (If only I could...), creating a world of longing. Timelessly onwards, one wishes to escape, into freedom. The setting is for soprano and alto voices with a soprano solo.
Jesper Hagberg Mattsvåg's Brinnande ljus was premiered in a male choir version (not published) by Zero8 in August 2025 (watch on YouTube). This is an idiosyncratic, jubilantly swinging setting for SATB divisi of Karin Boye's powerful text, featuring alternating time signatures and divided voices.
"Hog bristle night and muggy smell in the sty, the sow snores in her dream" – thus begins Alvin Vikman's Svinborstnatt, a lustful setting of Elsa Grave's rich text, dedicated to Stockholm Music Gymnasium's Chamber Choir and Sofia Ågren. Here, the mixed choir will find textual, rhythmic, and harmonic challenges!
Jubel jubel is the title of Kjell Perder's latest sacred work, a lively Gloria for festive occasions, for mixed choir and a solo intended for a unison children's choir or soprano soloist. Perder's musical language, as always, has a touch of modernism with harmonies that are sometimes powerful, sometimes soft, demanding of the choir.