Nils Lindberg came from a family of folk musicians and grew up in Gagnef in the province of Dalarna. He started playing jazz in his teens and during the 1950s studied counterpoint and composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm for, among others, Lars-Erik Larsson and Karl-Birger Blomdahl. Throughout his professional life, he worked in parallel as a professional musician and composer. With roots in Swedish folk music and jazz, and using the forms of classical music, he developed a unique musical language, independent of trends and prevailing ideals, achieving great success both in Sweden and internationally. He was a boundary-crossing artist, equally appreciated by jazz musicians, symphony orchestras, and choirs.
Nils Lindberg’s interest in choral music emerged relatively late, not until the 1990s. He composed a long series of highly acclaimed choral pieces. Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day, from the suite O Mistress Mine, which exists in several different arrangements, has become his most performed and beloved work. It is also one of the most internationally performed Swedish choral pieces of all time.
The large scale works, Requiem (1993) and A Christmas Cantata (2002) for choir, soloists and symphonic big band, are works that are regularly performed across Europe and in the USA. In addition, he has composed the choral suites Light and Darkness to texts by Harry Martinsson, a suite to texts by Christina Rosetti,To heaven with praise and a long series of arrangements of Swedish folk songs.
Nils Lindberg has also composed a number of orchestral works, often with inspiration drawn from folk music, as in e.g. Seven Dalecarlian Paintings, Concerto Grosso in Dalaton, Mythological Pictures and Dalecarlian Reflections. He has also composed for string quartet, brass quintet, saxophone quartet, organ and pieces for various solo instruments.
As a jazz musician Nils Lindberg collaborated during his life with many international greats such as Judy Garland, Mel Tormé, Thad Jones and Duke Ellington, and Swedish artists and musicians such as Alice Babs, Lars Gullin, Jan Allan, Lena Willemark, Margareta Bengtsson, Anders Paulsson and others.
At Prime Minister Olof Palme's funeral in 1986, Lindberg participated with his own music and in 1989 he wrote music for the Pope's service in Uppsala Cathedral. He was also commissioned to write music for the opening of the Piteå Festival in 2013, Dalacarelian Pictures for organ and orchestra, for the famous Organ Acousticum.
Nils Lindberg received a number of prizes and awards during his life: Orkesterjournalen's "Golden Disc", the Hugo Alfvén prize, the Duke Ellington prize, the Lars Gullin prize, HM the King's medal Litteris et artibus and the Thore Ehrling prize.
