© SMIC

Karin Rehnqvist

Published July 2001

Updated March 3, 2002


Born

August 21, 1957 in Stockholm

Basic biography

Karin Rehnqvist studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Here teachers included Gunnar Bucht, Pär Lindgren and Brian Ferneyhough. She has been a music teacher at the same academy and between 1976 and 1991 she was the leader of a amateur choir, Stans Kör.
In 1996 Karin Rehnqvist received the Läckerol Arts Award for her approach in combining folk and art music. That same year she also received the Spelmannen prize (Expressen newspaper) and in 1997 the Christ Johnson Prize for her composition Solsången.

On her music

Although it seems quite impossible to classify the music of Karin Rehnqvist, some basic characteristics can be mentioned. Most prominent is the fusion of folk expressions and techniques with the artistic elements of her music. Her compositions are not folkmusic like, though. One of those elements, for example, is kulning, an archaic song technique producing a loud, high-pitched tone without vibrato, used by herding girl to call the animals. This technique could be heard in compositions like Puksånger and Solsången. Another element in her music is the ideology of ridding herself of 'the critical attitude' taught at music colleges, resulting in a personal freedom of composing and style, using and creating artistic ideas without any compromise. And this is what her music is very much: Emotional, uncompromising, shocking, fresh and new. On hearing the Solsången CD for the first time, I was more than surprised or as Guy Rickards put in Gramophone magazine (January 2000): 'the stunning CD of Karin Rehnqvist, from which I am still in shock'.

List of Works

Recordings



LINKS

Edition Reimers (biography, worklist, recordings)
SMIC (biography, extensive worklist, discography etc.)

Any additions or comments?

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