Martin Fröst

Martin Fröst is internationally known as a highly virtuoso clarinettist, original music mediator and inspiring conductor. The pursuit of reshaping classical music and the search for new challenges characterise him as much as an extensive repertoire. It consists of set clarinet works, but also a number of contemporary compositions, for which he is a strong advocate. In 2014, he was the first clarinettist to be honoured for his playing with one of the highest musical awards in the world, the “Léonie Sonning Music Prize”.

As a soloist, the Swedish-born musician has performed with world-renowned orchestras such as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. He was a guest at the RSB for the first time in 2013. He regularly works with artists such as Yuja Wang, Janine Jansen and Roland Pöntinen. He plays at international festivals and tours throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

Since 2019, Martin Fröst has been principal conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Together they started a project in which they travelled through Europe only by train, following in Mozart’s footsteps. As part of a multimedia performance project with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Martin Fröst performed as soloist and conductor.

The 21/22 season was marked by concerts and tours through Central Europe with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, but also by the Norwegian and British premiere of the Double Concerto for Violin and Clarinet by Sally Beamishs, which Martin Fröst performed together with violinist Janine Jansen. He also returned to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and conducted the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in France for the premiere of Jesper Nordin’s Emerging from Currents and Waves.

Martin Fröst’s interest is not only in the constant reinvention of music, he is also strongly committed to music education. In 2019, for example, he founded the Martin Fröst Foundation, which aims to provide better access to musical instruments and lessons for children and young people and already has a presence in Kenya and Madagascar.