Gunnar Idenstam

Some info! More personal later :-) Gunnar Idenstam was born in 1961 in the extreme north of Sweden. As a classical organist he was trained by, among others, the legendary Marie-Claire Alain. In 1984 he won the Grand Prix de Chartres for improvisation and since then he pursues a career as a recitalist, composer, arranger and folk musician which takes him to many parts of the world.As a folk musician he stands quite apart in his transposition of the special qualities of the swedish folk music tradition to church organ or harmonium and keyboard for example in his own folk music group. His style as a composer/improviser is a felicitous amalgamation of art music, folk music and the more symphonically oriented rock music that represents something not previously attempted in organ music. He also arranges both symphonic music (Mahler, Ravel etc.) and different kind of popular ethnic music (Riverdance) for the organ and regularly performs with leading musicians from various genres of music. Welcome to www.idenstam.orgCathedral Music Composed by Gunnar Idenstam. One hour of mysicism, power, devotion, playfulness,light and dark, brilliance and festive joy. The French cathedral tradition in a happy marriage with symphonic rock/pop. Partly performed around the world since 1996, and as a whole for example in Notre Dame de Paris.Duo recital with Christian Lindberg, trombone Orchestral works by Wagner, Ravel, Prokofiev and music from ”Riverdance” in own dazzling arrangements, first time performed in Tokyo 2000.LÅTAR /Swedish folk tunes/Bach Swedish folk music in a happy marriage with music by Bach, two genres that are closer to one another than one might think. Two different voices from the same period of time. Music with ”beat”, referring do dance, with similar phrasings and ornaments. Barock polskas are interferred with chorals and dance movements by Bach, a solo polska reminding of a gamba sonata leading directly to one of the great organ works by Bach.Gunnar Idenstam, pipe organ, Johan Hedin, nyckelharpa.Bach på svenska (Bach in swedish) With our classical training as a base and with feet firmly in the Swedish folk music tradition, we invite Father Bach to dance his own dance side by side with the Swedish "polska". There is much common ground – melody lines, harmony sequences, accentuations, ornamentations and rhythmic inclinations – that together gives the groove to which both styles aspire. During the Baroque period the clear distinction between “classical” music and “folk” music, to which we are accustomed today, did not exist. There was a living tradition of dances that were sometimes written down, sometimes passed on orally. During the 18th Century, a part of Swedish church organists work was to play dance music with local folk musicians at weddings and other celebrations. It’s undeniably a tantalizing thought that these musicians, often of foreign heritage, who could play notated music, maybe, just maybe, sometimes taught a Swedish folk musician a minuet, a bourrée or a courante from their homeland. Maybe even something from the hands of Johann Sebastian... How would a Swedish fiddler have played Bach? We have also, out of pure desire, taken such great liberties that we’ve changed the basic character in certain movements by Bach and turned a few minuets into “polser,” kinds of tunes with “early twos” that exist in western Sweden. This feels natural to us as well since we’re not claiming, foremost, to be true to the time, but have chosen to – from our feeling for the music – create a meeting where the thought can play freely. Bach and the Swedish folk musicians… what if they really did meet? Lisa Rydberg, baroque violin, Gunnar Idenstam, harmonium organMidsummer Night..s Mass A moving concert framed by summer night, sunset and poethic light. Church organ as a folk instrument with flutes, shawns and trumpets surrounding a partly sweet, partly lamenting soprano saxophone. The music is from our swedish folk tradition containing painfully beautiful Ballads of the Middle Ages, slow irregular polska dances peaked by ”vallåtar”, a type of birch bark horn melodies, new folkmelodis and triumphant wedding marches. The music is performed without interruptions, formed like a meditation.Gunnar Idenstam, church organ, Anders paulsson, soprano saxophone.Idens Kapell Gunnar Idenstam..s folk band. Fiddle, harmonium, synthesizer and percussion. The music is traditional swedish folk music and new folk music by Idenstam. The influences are from rock, reggae and baroque. Traditional and modern folk instruments.Christmas in Swedish is a project with Gunnar Idenstam..s arrangements of the traditional Christmas songs for fiddle, folk song, organ and choir and, in some tunes, the audience as well. New polska dances are interwoven with the old melodies and some Christmas songs are already folk songs, here given a new dimension.With Lisa Rydberg, fiddle, Sofia Karlsson, folk song, Emma Härdelin, folk song, Gunnar Idenstam, organ and S:t Jakob..s Chamber Choir with conductor Gary G