Mats Larsson Gothe

Mats Larsson Gothe, a full-time composer since 1995, composes works in most genres: stage works, orchestral works, solo pieces and chamber music. During the past few years his operas have attracted a great deal of attention.

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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.
His new music to the silent movie classic, The Phantom Carriage, scored great success when it was performed live to the film during the Gothenburg Film Festival in February 2017.

Stylistically, Mats Larsson Gothe started off in a Stravinsky tradition that he strives to develop. Furthermore, studies in Italy (with Atli Ingólfsson) have lent his music a brilliant versatility that could be called Italian, exemplified by works of Franco Donatoni et al. 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 the dramaturgical structure shows that his work with opera has rubbed off on those pieces as well. The music has become more lyric and less dependent on modernistic gestures.

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 Little Christ Johnson Prize (2003), the Bo Wallner Prize (2009), Svenska Dagbladet’s Opera Prize (2015) and the Swedish Music Publishers’ Award (2015). He received a Swedish Grammy Award (2017) for the album Mats Larsson Gothe - Orchestral Works, including his Symphony No. 2, Apotheosis of the Dance (Larsson Gothe's reflection on Beethoven's Seventh Symphony) and Autumn Diary for chamber orchestra.

Selected works

Symphony No. 2 "...sunt lacrimae rerum..." (2009)
Apotheosis of the Dance (2012)
From a Notebook. Magnificat (2012)
Autumn Diary (2013-14)
...de Blanche et Marie... - Symphony No. 3 (2015)