James MacMIllan. Photo: Nadja Sjöström
International Composer Festival with Klas Torstensson
This year’s International Composer Festival is dedicated to the Swedish-Dutch composer Klas Torstensson.
Klas Torstensson’s music is powerful, with volcanic eruptions and, at times, a kind of hammering energy. But ever since his 1999 opera Expeditionen, a more lyrical, almost bleeding emotionality has begun to emerge. Torstensson’s music moves between extremes.
Born in Sweden in 1951, Klas Torstensson has lived in the Netherlands for more than fifty years – he moved there in 1973. An internationally acclaimed composer, the festival focuses primarily on his output from the past two decades, though music from the early 1970s is also featured. The result is a broad retrospective.
The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra opens the festival, and, as is tradition, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra also makes a guest appearance. Besides his own works, Torstensson has chosen to include music by Johann Sebastian Bach/Anton Webern and by Charles Ives – works that meant a great deal to him as a young man dreaming of becoming a composer.
Read the interview with Klas Torstensson in the magazine Lyssna.
Concerts
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Vocal music
Composer Festival – Opening Concert
An adventurous operatic expedition and a new work by Klas Torstensson.
Thursday 6 November 2025 19.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival – Opening Concert
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival – Opening Concert
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Genre: Orchestral performance
Composer Festival – The Heaven
The poetry of nature as the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra performs music by Klas Torstensson.
Friday 7 November 2025 19.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival – The Heaven
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival – The Heaven
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Vocal music
Composer Festival – The Expedition
An adventurous operatic journey and a new work by Klas Torstensson.
Saturday 8 November 2025 15.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival – The Expedition
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival – The Expedition
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Genre: Chamber music, Vocal music
Composer Festival – Hope and Longing
Pocket-sized yet powerful: the festival finale with music by Klas Torstensson.
Sunday 9 November 2025 15.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival – Hope and Longing
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival – Hope and Longing