Johan Ullén (b. 1972) is active as both a pianist and composer. He studied piano and composition at the Royal Stockholm College of Music and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. As a composer, Johan Ullén has written chamber music, orchestral music, songs and operas, which have been performed in concert halls and festivals in Sweden as well as internationally.
One of Johan Ullén's most played works is The Deadly Sins(2006–2008), seven tangos for piano trio, which have been performed some forty times by various ensembles, in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Italy, Russia and Japan, among others. The piece received a lot of attention in 2013 when Sveriges Television made its own production of Deadly Sins, in the series "Performance of the Week", where Trio Nova participated together with the poet Kristina Lugn and dancers. In 2016 came the piano concerto version of the work, for piano and string orchestra, which was premiered by Musica Vitae and the composer himself as soloist.
The Swedish Radio commissioned the song cycle Lady Macbeth (2009) for the mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus, who premiered the work at the Folkoperan in Stockholm together with the pianist Matti Hirvonen. The song cycle consists of three vocal monologues about evil and power from Shakespeare's Macbeth. In 2013, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra commissioned a new and longer version of Lady Macbeth for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, where orchestral preludes, interludes and postludes were added to further enhance the atmosphere.
In 2016, Johan Ullén's recompositions of Bach's four violin concertos, Infinite Bach, a project initiated by violinist Christian Svarfvar were premiered during a festival at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. It was an immediate success. The work was recorded by Christian Svarfvar and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on an album released in 2021 and gained large audiences on various streaming services. Infinite Bach has subsequently been used on several occasions as music for dance performances in both Europe and the USA.
Johan Ullén has also composed operas that have been received very positively by both press and audience. Zucco (2016) was written for the Royal Opera's short stories project and The Love Machine (2019) for Piteå Chamber Opera. Johan Ullén is currently writing a larger orchestral work commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra that will premiere in London in the spring 2025 under the direction of Anna-Maria Hellsing.
