Born in Stockholm on the 24th October, 1955. In 1978 he began the music teacher training course at the Gothenburg College of Music with flute as his principal instrument, and this was followed by composition studies with Sven-Eric Johanson. Between 1985 and 1989 he was a member of the composition class at the Gothenburg College of Music, where his teachers included Mikael Edlund, Bo Holten och Lars Johan Werle.
In 1989 the orchestral work Time and the Bell won a prize at the Nordic Composition Competition in Gothenburg, and in 1995 it was awarded the Christ Johnson Prize. Other notable examples from Hultqvist’s output are the double concerto Incantatio, The Wintergarden for strings, Within for horn and string quartet, the computer composition Solvind (Sun Wind) and Winter Afternoons for twelve singers.
His main aim, in his own words, is “ to penetrate beyond stylistic figures and reach the core, the musical sign as such, and in so doing be lifted, hopefully, to a higher level.“ Among other things, the unsentimental, ascetic atmosphere in his works has been commented on, and the presence of two opposites - brutality and sensuality - has also been discussed (Nutida Musik No.2, 1994).
In addition to composing, Anders Hultqvist has also been responsible for the composition course in Gothenburg since 1989, and he is also head of the Centre for New Music (CNM), which was formed in 1997.