Martin Fröst
14 December 1970
Uppsala, Sweden
- Classical
- chamber
- contemporary
Clarinetist
Clarinet and Basset clarinet
He is the first clarinetist to be awarded one of classical music's biggest honours,[5] the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.[2] other recipients include Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Miles Davis, Daniel Barenboim and Gidon Kremer.[7] He is also the only wind player ever to have been appointed Artist in Residence with the Amsterdam's Concertgebouworkest (for the 2022/23 season).[2][8] He was appointed principal conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2019.[2][9]
Fröst has performed as soloist with most of the leading orchestras of the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouworkest, London Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Orchestre de Paris.[2][5]
Fröst is also a developer of multimedia projects with music, choreography and light design, in which he appears as a clarinetist, conductor, copywriter and "master of the ceremony".[2] He crosses musical and medial borders.[2][10][11]
Early life and education[edit]
Fröst was born in Uppsala, Sweden.[12][3] As a youth, he began musical studies on violin at age 5. At age 9, he started to learn the clarinet.[4] He switched to clarinet after hearing a recording of Jack Brymer playing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.[6]
Fröst studied with Sölve Kingstedt and Kjell-Inge Stevensson on the Royal College of Music, Stockholm and with Hans Deinzer on the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.[6]
His first concerto performance was at age 17 with the Swedish Royal Academy of Music Orchestra.[6]
Career[edit]
As a clarinetist, Fröst has performed with many orchestras in Europe, the USA, Japan and China. From the 2006/07 to 2008/09 season, he was an artist in the "Junge Wilde" series at the Konzerthaus Dortmund.[13] Regarding his repertoire, Fröst says: "I have actually played just about everything that is right and good for the clarinet."[3] This also includes works by contemporary composers who wrote them especially for him, for example John Adams, Krzysztof Penderecki, Anna Clyne, Anders Hillborg, Kalevi Aho, Rolf Martinsson, Bent Sørensen, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Karin Rehnqvist and Sven-David Sandström. Conductors he has worked with include Kirill Petrenko, Riccardo Chailly, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Paavo Järvi, Klaus Mäkelä, David Zinman, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lahav Shani, Alain Altinoglu, Nicholas Collon, Maxim Emelyanychev, Jakub Hrusa, Hannu Lintu, Andrew Manze, Gianandrea Noseda, Jonathan Nott, Sakari Oramo, and Osmo Vänska. Chamber music partners include Janine Jansen, Sol Gabetta, Yuja Wang, Quatuor Ebene, Antoine Tamestit, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lucas Debargue, Roland Pöntinen, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and Joshua Bell.[2][14]
His younger brother Göran also writes for him, especially klezmer music. In 1998 Fröst broke new ground with performances of Anders Hillborg's clarinet concerto "Peacock Tales" with elements of mime and dance, a piece that had performed over 300 times worldwide.[[15][16][17]
Fröst was artistic leader of the Swedish Vinterfest music festival for 10 seasons, concluding his tenure in 2015. He became joint artistic director of the Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival in 2010, and served in that until 2015. He has been a conductor-in-association with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Partner with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and has held multiple residencies at the Wigmore Hall in London.[2][14]
He was Artist in Residence with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra[18] and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra[19] in the 2018–2019 season and with the Tonhalleorchester Zürich in the 2019–2020 season.[20]
On 5 January 2023, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam hosted the world premiere of the clarinet concerto Weathered, by the British composer Anna Clyne, who lives in the United States, with Fröst as soloist, performance time: 27 minutes.[21][2]
Personal life[edit]
Fröst lives in Stockholm, Sweden with his wife Karin (née Berglund) and 2 children.[46]