Hakan Rosengren

Clarinet soloist Hakan Rosengren has performed throughout much of Europe with, among others, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Porto Chamber Orchestra of Portugal and all of Sweden’s most-noted orchestras including the Swedish Radio Symphony, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, the Norrkoping Symphony – as well in the United States with, for example, the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Jarvi, Edvard Serov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Leif Segerstam, Osmo Vanska, Sakari Oramo, and Okko Kamu, and he has been heard on radio and TV in the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, the USA, Portugal, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and all of the Nordic countries.

As a recitalist Mr. Rosengren has appeared throughout the United States including in New York City, Cleveland and Los Angeles, in Copenhagen, Helsinki, the Baltic States, and throughout his native Sweden. Chamber music performances have taken Mr. Rosengren to the Sandviken Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival as well as on European tours with the Chamber Music Makers (Kammarmusikmakarna) and the Silesian Quartet. He is also a member of Solaris, Ensemble in Residence at the University of Akron. International awards accorded Mr. Rosengren are many and include First Prize in the UNESCO International Competition for Young Performers, First Prize in the Biennial for Young Nordic Soloists, First Prize in the Los Angeles Arts Council Competition, and First Prize in Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition. In 1990 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him a Solo Recitalist’s Fellowship.A supporter of new music, he has commissioned concertos for clarinet and orchestra by Swedes Anders Eliasson, Jan Sandstrom and Henrik Strindberg. The Dane Poul Ruders composed his Throne to Mr. Rosengren, also on a commission on his behalf, and he has premiered numerous other pieces in Scandinavia, the US and Europe.

For Sony Classical, Mr. Rosengren recorded Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen; other recordings include Bernhard Crusell’s Introduction, Theme and Variations and Concerto in f minor with Okko Kamu and the Swedish Radio Symphony on Musica Sveciae as well as chamber music on Blaton, Phono Svecia, and Musica Sveciae. Winter 1997 will see the release of the first of several recital CDs, this one with music by Brahms, Hindemith, Schumann and Weber, from Nytorp Records, as well as Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time on Caprice Records. Future recordings include collaborations with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra and the Silesian Quartet. Following his Soloist’s Diploma from the State Academy of Music in Stockholm and studies with Walter Boeykens at the Royal Flemish Conservatory, Mr. Rosengren received a Fulbright grant in 1985 and a stipend from the American-Scandinavian Foundation in 1986 to study in .the united States with James Kanter and Mitchell Lurieat University of California Santa Barbara. He is currently Professor of Clarinet at the University of Akron.