Bio

Anders Flodin (b. 1961)

The early years, the first steps

Anders Flodin started out at Karlstad Municipal School of Music, studying piano (with Lydia Makàrowa), flute (with Böret Edlund), conducting (with Rune Larsson) and music theory (with Vladislav Čada). Already in 1978 he took part in the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, Festival Study Course in Aldeburgh, England. There he studied score reading, musical form and analysis (with W. H. Swinburne) and analysis (with Peter Lyne). The further musical studies was 1980-1982 at Kävesta Folk High School, Sweden, studying composition and music theory (with Sune Smedeby) and piano (with Lennart Ågren).  Together with Sune Smedeby and Lennart Ågren he was one of the founding members of Örebro Förening för Samtida Musik, an association for contemporary music.

The further studies and into the academic life

There was no doubt at that stage that Anders Flodin would continue his career in music studies. He completed his MFA in Music Education at Örebro University College in 1987. At that stage he had also attended summer courses in contemporary music, courses that certainly would colour so many facets of his later career. They were at Norden’s Folk High School Biskops-Arnö with Jan W. Morthenson (composition) and Rolf Enström (electro-acoustic music). After that he continued his studies in two geographical directions, which also was to follow him in life – to Norway as part of the Nordic and Baltic States and to Prague and Bratislava as part of central Europe and the eastern side of what was the line between East and West. It was composition with Olav Anton Thommessen at the Norwegian Academy of Music (Bachelor in composition 1989). Then composition with Vladimír Bokes at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (1989-1990) and with Svatopluk Havelka at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (1993).

Into the teaching field – to get new perspectives from a teacher’s pulpit

Between 1990-1996 he was a music teacher at De Geer Upper Secondary School in Norrköping and in 1995-1996 he taught music theory and composition at Geijer School in Ransäter.

Towards his MFA – to be found somewhere between note and tone

After years of work and thought, research and writing, he completed his MFA in Musicology and Artistic Practice in 2007. His thesis, In the borderland between note and tone: notation symbols in newly-composed music, “is about the interaction between composition, notation and interpretation and what occurs between the fields with an extended notation. The purpose of my thesis is to examine the possibilities to thoroughly describe and map the sounding samples through composition prototypes. The thesis has a qualitative approach, and the empirical material consists of different documents about notation and from interviews with musicians and students about the instruments used in the thesis. It also consists of 17 compositions recorded at Örebro University, School of Music, as an appendix. The analysis shows that the context in which the symbols are found, play an important role in performing them. It also shows that the performers are rooted in a traditional way of performing.” His thesis advisor was Christer Bouij. 

Back to the academic life as lecturer

In 1996 he was appointed lecturer in music theory at Örebro University and in 2006 he was promoted to senior lecturer in music theory. Between 2018-2020 he was a lecturer in music and didactics of music at University of Borås and in 2020 he became Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Department of Opera at Stockholm University of the Arts.

Music in foreign lands

In 2001 Anders Flodin was greatly excited when he was invited to Swedish-Ukrainian Chamber Music Concert at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine. There he gave master-classes and met with the students, something he found so rewarding that he kept on searching for more opportunities for it. He was guest lecturer at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway (2005). In 2011 he was lucky to get a stipend to teach at Vilnius Pedagogical University, Lithuania.  That was a very fruitful semester and in the autumn of 2013 he received a long-term scholarship (from the Swedish Institute Baltic Sea Region) between professionals at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences in Vilnius, Lithuania.  At the home front he was a lecturer at Båstad Chamber Music Festival Summer Courses in Composition (2010-2013).

In 2014 he was giving seminars and lectures at Høgskolen i Bergen, Norway, with Jostein Stalheim in the Nordplus programme. In 2015 he was a guest lecturer at the 3rd International Symposium 2015 Composition Paradigms Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia. In May 2016 he was a guest lecturer at Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, financed by Linnaeus-Palme exchange programme. In spring of 2018 he was invited back to one of his favourite institutions, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic, to give seminars and lectures. In 2020 he found himself in Baku, Azerbaijan, as guest lecturer at Baku Music Academy (named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli).

His compositions

His compositions are programmed by: Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Östgöta Symphonic Wind Ensemble, The Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Emelie Sjöström, Åsa Jäger, Solvieg Ågren, Lennart Ågren, Laura Polchovaite, Ragnhild Pettersson, Nordic Saxophone Quartet, Kristina Darguzyte, Ensemble Archi, Igor Andrievsky, Rolf Gupta, Jostein Stalheim, Mats Jansson, Yoriko Asahara, Samuel Berthod, Lauri Hyvärinen, Timo Pyhälä, Oleksandr Ivanov, Ivan Kutjer, Tetjana Kozak among others.

His writings in music

Anders Flodin was elected to the Swedish Society of Composers in 1995. He is a writer and editor of Nine articles about music, commemorative book – FMT , Urban space as a resonance room – a sitespecific concert, Threads of sounds – Festival Nuovi Affreschi Sonori and Phronesis 2020.

He is a founding member of the contemporary music society FMT, organizer of Örebro Contemporary Music Festival 2016, Örebro, Sweden, UN AGE #pixlapiren 2017, Helsingborg , Sweden, Festival Nuovi Affreschi Sonori 2018 in Bomba, Italy, Crosscurrents and Nodes 2019, Örebro, Sweden, Elements 2022 in Prague, Czech Republic and artistic and educational leader for Romodrom 2014 in Pribylina, Slovakia.

His compositions are published by Svensk Musik