Klas Torstensson (January 16, 1951, Sweden) studied
composition
at the Ingesunds Musikhögskola, musicology at the University
of Gothenburg and electronic music at the Institute of Sonology,
Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Torstensson’s compositions are performed by orchestras,
ensembles and soloists worldwide and presented on most major European
new music festivals: Huddersfield, Ultima (Oslo), Steirischer Herbst
(Graz), Wien Modern, Stockholm New Music, Nordic Music Days
(Reykjavik/Malmö/Berlin), Gaudeamus (Amsterdam), Warsaw, Gaida
(Vilnius), Festival van Vlaanderen (Belgium), Holland Festival
(Amsterdam), GAS (Gothenburg), NYYD (Tallinn), Darmstadt, to name only a
few.
He was also featured composer at festivals such as Stockholm
New Music 1999 (together with Mauricio Kagel and György Kurtág), Time
of Music 2001, (Viitasaari, Finland), and Montréal-Nouvelles-Musiques
2003.
In 1991 Torstensson received the Matthijs Vermeulen
Prize - the most prestigious composition prize in The Netherlands,
in 1999 followed by the Stora Christ Johnson Priset, the
major Swedish composition prize awarded by the Swedish Royal Music
Academy.
Torstensson’s opera The Expedition was a
nominee for the Nordic Council Music Prize 2006, whereas the Intermezzo
from the same opera received a recommendation by the jury of the
International Rostrum of Composers in 1999.
Urban Songs for soprano Charlotte Riedijk,
Ensemble Intercontemporain and computers - commissioned by Ircam, Paris
-, was premiered in 1992, and was to
be programmed for another two seasons by the same ensemble,
as well as by many other European ensembles, such as Ensemble Modern
(Frankfurt), Asko Ensemble (Amsterdam) and Kammar-ensembleN
(Stockholm).
In 1994 Torstensson composed The Last Diary
for reciting voice and large ensemble, based on the diaries of S.A.
Andrées, leader of the tragic Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. The
Last Diary has in the past decade also been translated into
German - for performances in
Vienna and Graz with H.K. Gruber in the role of Andrée - and
Icelandic.
The same material served as a basic for his opera The
Expedition (1994-1999) for soloists, orchestra and
electronics, to a libretto written by the composer. The opera was
premiered in concert form during the 1999 Holland Festival in the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw, in a performance conducted by Peter Eötvös.
Performances followed in Germany, Sweden and Norway.
From 1999 to 2002 Torstensson wrote a full-length cycle
entitled Lantern Lectures. The cycle was a joint
commission by Le Nouvel Ensemble Modern (Montréal), Asko Ensemble
(Amsterdam), KammarensembleN (Stockholm) and Klangforum Wien. Over the
past years Lantern Lectures has been performed some
thirty times, by seven ensembles in thirteen countries.
In October 2004 the song cycle In großer Sehnsucht
(on texts by five 'tragic' women: Camille Claudel, Frida Kahlo,
Cristina di Svezia, Rosa Luxemburg and Louise Michel) received its
first performance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with Charlotte
Riedijk and the Osiris Piano Trio. In the concert season 2006/2007 the
cycle went on tour through Sweden and was presented in a staged version
by Onafhankelijk Toneel during the Rotterdam Opera Days. The concerto
for percussion and large ensemble Selfportrait with percussion
(Lantern Lectures, Volume V), commissioned by Peppie Wiersma
and the Asko Ensemble, was premiered during the Wittener Tage für
neue Kammermusik in May 2006.
Torstensson is currently working on a set of orchestral
pieces, A cycle of the North. The first piece, Fastlandet
(The Mainland), commissioned by the ZaterdagMatinee, was first
performed on October 6, 2007 as the opening work of the series ‘Sibelius
and the New Music’ in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, by the Radio
Filharmonisch Orkest conducted by Jaap van Zweden. The second work, Polarhavet
(The Polar Sea), - a co-commission by Sveriges Radios
Symfoniorkester and the Stavanger Symfoniorkester (Norway), was
premiered
during the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, August
2008.
The Norwegian premiere followed in December 2008
(Stavanger Cultural Capital of Europe 2008).
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockholm has - together
with the Dutch Brabants Orkest - commissioned the third
work of the cycle, to be performed in 2010/2011.
Most of Torstensson’s music is available on CD.
(2008)
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