Fredrik Fors
Encyclopedia
Fredrik Fors is a Swedish
, classical music
clarinetist. His album in the Juventus Les Nouveaux Musiciens series has been described as "one of the finest recitals of its kind."
No. 2 in F minor, Op. 5, by Bernhard Crusell with the Helsingborg
Symphony Orchestra. Swedish Television made a much acclaimed documentary about Fors at the time of his debut. By 1990 he had played the Jean Françaix
Clarinet Concerto with the Austrian Radio Orchestra
. In 1993 he received the Juventus Prize awarded by the Council of Europe
and Foundation Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. He pursued further studies on clarinet with Sölve Kingstedt at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm
, receiving his Soloist's Diploma in 1996, and later had lessons or master classes with such well-known clarinetists as Karl Leister
, Yehuda Gilad, Antony Pay
, Richard Stoltzman
, and Kalmen Opperman
. He became a member of the Oslo Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons
in 1995 and is currently (2009) Co-Principal.
Clarinet Concerto, he has also performed the Copland
, Mozart, Nielsen
, and Weber
concertos. He also gave the Scandinavia
n premiere and has had great success with the John Corigliano
Clarinet Concerto
ian. He is a member of the Oslo Philharmonic Wind Soloists and joined the Bergen Woodwind Quintet
in the autumn of 2006. He has appeared in festivals such as the BBC Proms
, the St. Magnus Festival (Orkney), and the Juventus Festival (France
), as well as numerous festivals in Scandinavia
, including Musik vid Siljan
and the Saxå Kammarmusik Festival in Sweden, and, in Norway, the Hardanger
Musikkfest, Vinterfestspill på Røros
, Glogerfestdagarne, the Ultima Festival (in Oslo
), and the Risør
Chamber Music Festival (Artistic Director: Leif Ove Andsnes
). He also appeared in concerts at the Théâtre de la Ville
in Paris in 1995 and 1999.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
clarinetist. His album in the Juventus Les Nouveaux Musiciens series has been described as "one of the finest recitals of its kind."
Early studies and career
Fredrik Fors began playing clarinet at the age of 10 in the music school of his native town. At 15 he made his debut as soloist in the Clarinet ConcertoConcerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
No. 2 in F minor, Op. 5, by Bernhard Crusell with the Helsingborg
Helsingborg
Helsingborg is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 97,122 inhabitants in 2010. Helsingborg is the centre of an area in the Øresund region of about 320,000 inhabitants in north-west Scania, and is Sweden's closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city...
Symphony Orchestra. Swedish Television made a much acclaimed documentary about Fors at the time of his debut. By 1990 he had played the Jean Françaix
Jean Françaix
Jean René Désiré Françaix was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style.-Life:...
Clarinet Concerto with the Austrian Radio Orchestra
Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra of the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk . Founded in 1969 with the name of the ORF-Symphonieorchester , it is the only radio orchestra in the country...
. In 1993 he received the Juventus Prize awarded by the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
and Foundation Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. He pursued further studies on clarinet with Sölve Kingstedt at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm
Royal College of Music, Stockholm
The Royal College of Music, Stockholm is the oldest institution of higher education in music in Sweden, founded in 1771 as the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music...
, receiving his Soloist's Diploma in 1996, and later had lessons or master classes with such well-known clarinetists as Karl Leister
Karl Leister
Karl Leister is a classical clarinet player from Wilhelmshaven, Germany. At a very young age, he learned to play the clarinet from his father, also a clarinetist, and later studied at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin...
, Yehuda Gilad, Antony Pay
Antony Pay
Antony Pay was born in London on February 21, 1945. After gaining a place with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, with whom he performed the Mozart clarinet concerto at the ages of 16, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then read Mathematics at Cambridge University, graduating...
, Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman is an American clarinetist. Born Richard Leslie Stoltzman in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part of the faculty list at the New England Conservatory...
, and Kalmen Opperman
Kalmen Opperman
Kalmen Opperman was an American clarinetist. He was a noted performer, teacher, conductor, mouthpiece and barrel maker , composer, and writer of numerous clarinet studies....
. He became a member of the Oslo Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons
Mariss Jansons
Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga Ghetto...
in 1995 and is currently (2009) Co-Principal.
Career as a soloist
Although Fors is particularly associated with the FrançaixJean Françaix
Jean René Désiré Françaix was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style.-Life:...
Clarinet Concerto, he has also performed the Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Mozart, Nielsen
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
, and Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
concertos. He also gave the Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n premiere and has had great success with the John Corigliano
John Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
Clarinet Concerto
Career as a chamber musician
Fors has had an active career as a chamber musicChamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
ian. He is a member of the Oslo Philharmonic Wind Soloists and joined the Bergen Woodwind Quintet
Bergen Woodwind Quintet
The Bergen Woodwind Quintet is a well-known woodwind quintet based in Bergen, Norway. The ensemble's members are the principal wind musicians of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, also known as Harmonien, which was founded in 1765 and is one of the world's oldest orchestral institutions...
in the autumn of 2006. He has appeared in festivals such as the BBC Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
, the St. Magnus Festival (Orkney), and the Juventus Festival (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), as well as numerous festivals in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, including Musik vid Siljan
Siljan (lake)
Siljan, in Dalarna in central Sweden, is Sweden's sixth largest lake. The cumulative area of Siljan and the adjacent, smaller lakes Orsasjön and Insjön is . Siljan reaches a maximum depth of , and its surface is situated above sea level...
and the Saxå Kammarmusik Festival in Sweden, and, in Norway, the Hardanger
Hardanger
Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord. It consists of the municipalities of Odda, Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik, Granvin, Kvam and Jondal, and is located inside the county of Hordaland....
Musikkfest, Vinterfestspill på Røros
Røros
is a town and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Røros. Other villages include Brekken, Glåmos, Feragen, Galåa, and Hitterdalen....
, Glogerfestdagarne, the Ultima Festival (in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
), and the Risør
Risør
is a city and municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. The city belongs to the traditional region of Sørlandet. It is a popular tourist place. The surrounding area includes many small lakes and hills, and is known for its beautiful coastline as well....
Chamber Music Festival (Artistic Director: Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and an ardent champion of the works of Edvard Grieg.-Biography:He studied with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory and made his debut in Oslo in 1987, in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989, and in the United States...
). He also appeared in concerts at the Théâtre de la Ville
Théâtre de la Ville
The Théâtre de la Ville is one of the two theatres built in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann at Place du Châtelet, Paris; the other being the Théâtre du Châtelet...
in Paris in 1995 and 1999.
Audio recording
Les nouveaux musiciens • Fredrik Fors, clarinette • Sveinung Bjelland, piano- Includes:
- DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
: Première Rhapsodie (1910) - Debussy: Petite pièce (1910)
- MartinůBohuslav MartinuBohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
: Sonatine pour clarinette et pianoClarinet Sonatina (Martinů)The Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů is a late work that was composed in 1956 while Martinů was living in New York.- Structure :...
(1956) H. 356 - BergAlban BergAlban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
: Vier Stücke für Klarinette und Klavier, Op. 5 (1913) - BusoniFerruccio BusoniFerruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
: Elégie pour clarinette et piano (1920) BV 286 - Busoni: Suite pour clarinette et piano, Op. 10 (1878) BV 88
- PoulencFrancis PoulencFrancis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
: Sonate pour clarinette et pianoClarinet Sonata (Poulenc)Francis Poulenc's Sonata for clarinet and piano dates from 1962 and is one of the last pieces he completed. The piece is dedicated to the memory of an old friend, the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, who like Poulenc had belonged to the group of "Les Six." A typical performance takes about 13...
(1962)
- Debussy
- Label: Harmonia MundiHarmonia MundiHarmonia Mundi is an independent music record label founded in 1958 by Bernard Coutaz in Arles . The Latin phrase means "world harmony"....
HMN911853 (1 CD, 63 min) Released 8 February 2005. - Recording location and date: Teldex Studio Berlin, February 2004.
- Note: The American Record GuideAmerican Record GuideThe American Record Guide is a classical music magazine. It has reviewed classical music recordings since 1935.Since 1992, with the incorporation of the Musical America editorial functions into ARG, it started covering concerts, musicians, ensembles and orchestras in the US.The magazine prides...
praised this CD as "one of the finest recitals of its kind."
External links
- Scanarts Management profile. Accessed 29 August 2009.