MATS LARSSON GOTHE

Biography
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Mats Larsson Gothe (b. 1965) has been active full time as a composer since 1995 and has written in most genres, with an emphasis on orchestral music and solo concertos, but also chamber music and not least opera.

He had a major breakthrough with his first full-length opera Poet and Prophetess at NorrlandsOperan in 2008, and the prize-winning Blanche and Marie aroused a lot of attention at the premiere in the autumn of 2014, and was also nominated for the 2015 International Opera Awards.
 

In his solo concertos Larsson Gothe has worked with soloists including Christian Lindberg, Torleif Thedéen and others, as well as the percussion ensemble Kroumata. Another important interpreter of his music is the singer Anna Larsson. Orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra have programmed his music. During the years 2009-12 Larsson Gothe was composer-in-residence at NorrlandsOperan and likewise with the Västerås Sinfonietta 2014-15. In April 2016 the Stockholm Concert Hall’s “Composer Weekend Festival” was devoted to his music.  
 

Stylistically, Mats Larsson Gothe started off in a Stravinsky tradition from which he has continued to develop. Furthermore, studies in Italy (with Atli Ingólfsson) have lent his music a scintillating quality of Mediterranean vigour. Emotional power of expression is fused with neoclassical features and a strong sense of pulse, which makes the music very intense. In his more recent orchestral music there is a dramaturgical structure which shows his work with opera has influenced these pieces as well.

 

Mats Larsson Gothe studied at the music teacher training program at the Ingesund College of Music, with trumpet and piano as his main instruments, continuing with composition studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Sven-David Sandström, Daniel Börtz and Pär Lindgren. He pursued further studies with Kalevi Aho at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He has been awarded a number of prestigious distinctions, including the Christ Johnson Prizes (2003 and 2018), the Bo Wallner Prize (2009), Svenska Dagbladet’s Opera Prize (2015) and the Swedish Music Publishers’ Award (2015).