Hans-Ola Ericsson

Ericsson studied church music at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, and continued his organ and composition studies at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany (with Zsigmond Szathmáry, Edith Picht-Axenfeld, Klaus Huber, and Brian Ferneyhough). He also studied privately with Luigi Nono and Olivier Messiaen. In 1988, Ericsson was appointed professor of organ performance at the Piteå School of Music, a department of the Luleå University of Technology in Piteå. In 1990, he was lecturer at the summer course for new music in Darmstadt and was awarded the prestigious Kranichsteiner Musikpreis. In 1996 Hans-Ola Ericsson was appointed permanent guest professor at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany. In the spring of 2000 he was named a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and he received the Swedish Society of Composers interpretation prize in 1999. He was Principal Guest Organist of the Lahti Organ Festival in Finland from 2002 until 2006. Since 2005, he is artistic consultant for the Bodø International Organ Festival in Norway. From 2011 until his retirement in 2020, he was professor of organ at the McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montréal, Canada. Ericsson has given concerts throughout Europe as well as in Japan and the USA and Canada. He is probably most known for his interpretations of contemporary organ literature, and a notable interpreter of the music of Messiaen. He has made numerous recordings including a highly acclaimed complete recording of Messiaen's organ music, being awarded the Swedish Gramophone Prize annually between 1985 and 1988. Hans-Ola Ericsson is also engaged in organ-restoration projects as well as holding courses in Europe and the USA. He served as the project leader of the "Övertorneå-project", an exhaustive documentation, reconstruction and restoration of the most important instrument of the Swedish Baroque, the organ of the German Church in Stockholm. He has also led the work with the Woehl-built organ in Studio Acusticum concert hall, Piteå. He has held guest professorships in Riga, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Amsterdam, as well as lectured and performed at a large number of leading organ festivals and academic symposia worldwide, persistently campaigning for the quality of new music and its right to be heard. Since the COVID pandemic 2020, Ericsson is also working as a visual artist. Harald Vogel writes the following about Hans-Ola Ericsson: "Hans-Ola Ericsson is one of the exceptional figures on the international music scene, distinguishing himself both as performer and composer. He excels in a wide range of styles, from early to contemporary music, always looking to infuse his playing with historically informed practices. No other organist in the last decade has played as many contemporary work premieres as Ericsson; he has worked closely with John Cage, György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen to better understand their artistic visions. As a post-avant-garde composer, Hans-Ola Ericsson blends existing sound material with the unheard in his works. This technique can be observed in Ericsson’s organ mass, relating the sounds of Arp Schnitger organs. He was referred to as the prototypical organist of the 21st century, his music displaying a versatility focused on every sound and on its compositional context." In 1989, Hans-Ola Ericsson was appointed professor at the Academy of Music in Piteå and at the University of Luleå. In 1996, he was appointed visiting professor at the University of the Arts Bremen and in 2011, professor of organ at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Today, he is in high demand as a concert organist, a composer, a teacher and a consultant for organ restoration work. He has worked namely to restore an organ dating back to the 17th century sitting in the German Church in Stockholm. His interpretations are well documented on numerous recordings, including the recording of Olivier Messiaen’s complete organ works. ==Compositional style==