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photo by Robin Del Mar
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"Born in Stockholm, Sweden, but currently living in London, Mats Lidström combines performing with teaching and composing. He plays a 1692 Stradivarius, owned by the Royal Academy of Music.
As a soloist he has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche S.O. Berlin, Dallas Symphony and the Gothenburg S.O., working with conductors such as V.Ashkenazy, A.Previn, A.Litton, F.Welser-Möst, O.Kamu and L.Sergerstam.
Mats Lidström has performed in most of the major halls as a chamber musician, such as the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Festival Halls, Théâtre du Châtelet, Musikverein (Brahms Saal), the Gulbenkian of Lisbon, the "Y" and A. Tully Hall of New York City, Oslo University Hall, and Stockholm's Berwaldhallen. Fellow musicians include Anne Sofie von Otter, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin, Nigel Kennedy, Roland Pöntinen and Peter Jablonski.
Appearances on TV and radio in Europe and the USA are numerous. Festivals include those of Aspen and Kingston (U.S.A.), Tenerife, Edinburgh, City of London, and festivals in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Reciprient of the Palmaer Prize (Sweden) in 1998.
Appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1993 by Lynn Harrell (an Honorary Associate awarded in 1998), Mats Lidström has also given master classes at the University of Oberlin, San Francisco Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music in the USA, and at conservatories in England and Spain. In 1992-93, he taught at the Gothenburg University, Sweden.
His passion for, and research of, neglected but beautiful music for his instrument, has resulted in several highly acclaimed CDs. With his duo partner of many years, Bengt Forsberg, he has recorded for Hyperion, Caprice and Musica Sveciae. As a soloist he has recorded concertos by Elgar, Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian, de Frumerie, and a world premier by the Spanish composer R. Groba. As a chamber musician he appears with von Otter on DG, and with Salerno-Sonnenberg and Harrell on EMI.
He has worked as Principal Cellist with the Royal Swedish Opera, the Norrköping S.O. and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, as well as guest-leading the Philharmonia, LSO, Academy of St. Martin's-in the Fields, BBC Scottish S.O., Royal Scottish Nat. Orch., Los Angeles and Oslo Philharmonic, and the major orchestras of Sweden.
Compositions include "The Sea of Flowers is Rising Higher", Elegy for solo cello to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, "Carnival of Venice" for violin and two cellos, "Christmas Cookies" for mezzo-soprano and three cellos, "Tango in C and Bflat" for string quartet, "Pastoral and Parody" for cello and tuba, "No Stopping Now" for violin and piano, and "Longing for More" for voice, piano and symphony orchestra.
Of the many transcriptions for cello, as well as for other combinations, composers include Rameau, Kreisler, Skryabin, J. Strauss, Piazzolla, Montsalvatge, Oscar & Hammerstein, Gershwin and Cole Porter.
Mats Lidström is a student of Maja Vogl of the Gothenburg University, and Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins of the Juilliard School, New York City. Other teachers are Pierre Fournier, William Pleeth, Janos Starker, Claus Adam, Lynn Harrell and David Takeno".
