Category: Blog posts

Last week, during a visit to Karlstad for a concert at the Wermland Opera, I attended a walking tour at one of the city’s cemeteries. The guide talked about various women buried there who had contributed to city’s development in significant ways, some even earning international fame. I had planned on writing this post about… Continue reading Lasting Impressions

I’m making excellent progress on my brand-new concert piece for the Octava Chamber Orchestra set to be premiered by them this summer. Pretty soon, the only thing left will be the hardest thing to figure out of all: the name of the piece. Working on this composition has also turned into kind of an exercise… Continue reading What’s in a Name

I have gone on regular tangents over the years about my views on crossover projects and the inherent difficulty in doing them well. Earlier this week, I stumbled on a brand-new example of what is, in my opinion, a crossover project done wrong. First of all, I want to give some well-deserved praise to Welsh… Continue reading Crossed Out

I have finally gotten started properly on both of this year’s two (so far!) larger composition projects. I had hoped to get going as early as January, but I was kept busy by working on or preparing other jobs. The two projects in question are the short opera for the Royal Swedish Opera, premiering Spring… Continue reading Great Artists Steal (From Themselves)

Among my clearest memories from when I was a teenager is a recurring, tangible anxiety over my then current as well as future abilities as a composer. Yes – I started worrying about such things early, why wait? One of my biggest concerns was that I did not know how to write anything that was longer… Continue reading Skul Means Shelter

Last week, I wrote an article for an upcoming concert at Berwaldhallen later this year, featuring a selection of music by pop idol turned experimental songwriter, Scott Walker. After a successful five years with The Walker Brothers (even though none of the three members were related, nor were any of them actually called Walker), Scott… Continue reading 30 Century Man

Every MAGFest I have attended so far has been a better experience than the last one. This one, my fourth, easily tops all previous years. I met wonderful people, had interesting conversations, listened to brilliant live music, and got to play awesome games. I’m writing this blog post on a plane from the D.C. area,… Continue reading Relight My Fire

This is my second year teaching an introduction to music business and entrepreneurship class at the Framnäs Folk High School. When they approached me, I told them that what I could offer is a unique, broad perspective, based on my personal experiences. My career so far as a freelancer has been, shall we say, wide-ranging.… Continue reading Sharing Is Caring

Sometimes, I feel especially strongly connected to events or experiences in my past. Thinking ahead to next week’s trip puts me on that same mental road, reflecting on how and in what ways I have changed and grown in the years that have passed. Next week, I will be going back to MAGFest (short for… Continue reading Closing Circles

September, this is not. In fact, September came and went, and while the blog remained on my mind, I opted to focus my time and energy on something else that came rather out of nowhere and took up most of both of those throughout the past four months: I got a job. If you know… Continue reading The Newest News