BIOGRAPHY

ALBERT SCHNELZER is one of Sweden's most frequently performed contemporary composers and made his international breakthrough at the Présence Festival in Paris 2004. His music is often described as energetic and forwardgoing, lyrical and fragile, but also directly accessible and intensly personal.

Albert Schnelzer was born in Värmland, Sweden on June 3 1972. Between 1994 and 2000 he studied at the Malmö Academy of Music and he has also studied at the master's level at the Royal College of Music in London. In 1998, while still a student, Albert Schnelzer won the competition Composers of Tomorrow with the orchestral work "Erupto", which was premiered by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. Albert Schnelzer was chosen to be a member of the Society of Swedish Composers in 2001.

INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH
During the 21st century he has taken his place among the most widely noticed younger Swedish composers, and in 2004 he scored an international breakthrough when his Predatory Dances, commissioned by Radio France, was premiered at the Présence Festival in Paris. His listed works include orchestral compositions, concertos and a wide spectrum of chamber music, and he regularly receives commissions from eminent ensembles and orchestras, both in Sweden and abroad. Albert Schnelzer is represented on several CD recordings, including a portrait CD on record label Daphne, and is published by Gehrmans Musikförlag. His music has been performed by orchestras such as the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra (SNYKO), Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic (USA), Musica Vitae, The Västerås Sinfonietta, The Dalasinfonietta, Göteborg Wind Orchestra, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and is programmed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NAC Orchestra Canada, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborations with ensembles such as The Brodsky Quartet, Ensemble Ader (France), Kaskados (Lithuania), Ensemble Nordlys (Denmark), Nils-Erik Sparf and David Härenstam, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, The Swedish Recorder Quartet, Weber Quartet and many others. Albert Schnelzer has represented Sweden at numerous festivals including MAGMA - The Biennal Festival of Nordic Contemporary Music in Berlin 2002, Musikbro 2001 (Denmark), Colloque Fou de Basson 2002 (France), Nordic Music Days 2004 (Denmark), IDRS 2004 (Melbourne, Australia), IDRS 2006 (Indiana, USA) and Nordland Musikfestuke 2009 (Bodø, Norway).

THE MUSIC
Albert Schnelzer's music has been described as "forwardgoing", "aggressive", "instrumentally demanding" but also as "fragile and vibrating" and "an aestetic that is more about personal expression than being modernistic correct".The Music Press have praised his inventiveness and personal musical language and he has a firm reputation among musicians for his ability to write idiomatic, but at the same time highly original. Albert Schnelzer has openly declared that communication is a key element in his music and he explains with his own words: "For me, there are basically two primary activities in human music history: dancing and singing. Therefore, I have worked intensively with developing such somewhat neglected elements such as pulse, meter and melody. Gaining complexity by combining simple musical elements has always been very interesting to me". The interest in dance has resulted in a suite of works, where "Dance with the Devil" for solopiano is the first. The composer called this piece "a cross between Franz Liszt and Iron Maiden" and that might give you an idea what is channeled in his music. Another important ingredient is folk music, for instance the Balkan influenced "Limpin' Dances" for accordion, cello and piano where the composer have fused Klezmer scales with Swedish "polska" rhythms.