Nils Lindberg came from a family of folk musicians and grew up in Gagnef in 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 his roots in Swedish folk music and jazz, and with the form of classical music, he created his very own tonal language independent of trends and prevailing ideals, and achieved great success both in Sweden and internationally. He resided in a musical borderland equally appreciated by jazz musicians as by symphony orchestras and choirs.
Nils Lindberg's interest in choral music was something that woke up quite late, only in the 90s. But since then there has been a long line of highly appreciated choral pieces.Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Dayout of the suiteO Mistress Minewhich can be found in a number of different settings, has become his most performed and loved piece, and is also one of the most internationally performed Swedish choral pieces ever.
The great works, Requiem(1993) and A Christmas Cantata(2002) for choir, soloists and symphonic big band, are works that are frequently performed around Europe and in the USA. In addition, he has written 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.
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 Festival in Piteå in 2013, Dalabilder for organ and orchestra, for the aforementioned 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.
