Born in Stockholm on 1st September 1943. He studied the piano with Greta Eriksson at the State Academy of Music, 1964-1969, and then contemporary music with Siegfried Naumann. Mats Persson continued his studies abroad with Aloys Kontarsky in Cologne 1969-1972 and was awarded DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst). He has also visited vacation courses for contemporary music in Darmstadt. While in Cologne he came into contact with the composer Bernd-Alois Zimmermann. As a pianist Mats Persson has made a career for himself as a soloist, has given successful duo performances together with Kristine Scholz and has also been active in the concert organization Fylkingen, Harpans Kraft etc. The image of Mats Persson as a perceptive interpreter above all of contemporary music is matched by his own composition, which is mostly for the piano. He has an unrivalled sense for the poetic nature of sounds and can utilise exciting contrasts between small sounds and long silences as in Agonia based on keyboard music by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist. Refractions for two pianos aroused attention at the ISCM world music festival in Athens in 1980. Fluctuation between dynamic and contemplative episodes plays an important part in his ballet music: Långt från Kaukasus and Mellan två trädgårdar, the latter in association with the choreographer Per Jonsson.