Ann-Sofi Söderqvist is a composer, jazz trumpeter and big band leader. Her music moves between genres and expressions, and her lyrical and exuberant own music-making is reflected in everything from choral works to symphonic works and fanfares. She has written music for symphony orchestras and big bands, classical choirs, vocal ensembles and the Radiojazz group. In 2011 she was awarded the medal for
the promotion of the art of tone for “an elegant craftsmanship and an exploration
approach in a close and creative relationship with the performing musicians”.
As a composer, Ann-Sofi Söderqvist, born in 1956, has expanded her expression from celebrated big band jazz to art music with beat and swing. With his own big band ASJO (Ann-Sofi Söderqvist Jazz orchestra), since its inception in 2011, Söderqvist has attracted attention with his leadership and his arrangements and compositions where each individual musician is given space within a rich orchestral sound.
She has written the orchestral piece for the Royal Philharmonic OrchestraMovementsfor the ceremonial opening of the Riksdag in 2017, which was also performed at the Nobel Concert in 2018. They also commissioned the double concertAnd the Mother Sings…(2021/2022) for trumpet, trombone and orchestra for his soloists Joakim Agnas and Karl Friesendahl. She composed for Gehrmans Musikförlag's 125th anniversaryCity Life, a pendant to Lars-Erik Larsson'sPastoral suite, where urban sounds, sounds and rhythms become an antithesis to Larsson's nature lyrics.
She has also composed music for the European Jazz Orchestra where she also served as conductor. When the Radiojazzgruppen was resurrected in 2023 after over half a century, Ann-Sofi Söderqvist was one of the first to lead a concert at the jazz club
Carnival with both own and others' compositions.
Söderqvist has a strong interest in the human voice and often includes it in an instrumental structure as well. Her choral music has been sung around Europe and recorded both on album and as a film by the stage vocal ensemble VoNo.
Ann-Sofi Söderqvist has received, among other things, the Jan Johansson scholarship, the Jazzkatten (Composer of the Year) and the Medal for the promotion of the musical arts. She has been a member of the Kgl Musikaliska Akademien since 2014.
