Gunnar Valkare

Swedish composer, musician, conductor, educator and music researcher, born on April 25, 1943 in Norrköpings Östra Eneby, Östergötland; died on November 9, 2019 in Färingsö, Uppland.

Valkare studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm 1963-1969; organ playing for Alf Linder, piano for Stina Sundell, composition for Ingvar Lidholm and conducting for Siegfried Naumann. Valkare made his debut as a composer in 1965, but after a schism with the Royal Opera in Stockholm about the chamber opera Opera, which he co-wrote with fellow student Bengt Ernryd, Valkare made a longer study trip to East Africa in 1969. He abandoned the Western art music tradition. improvised music with African elements and on African-inspired instruments. From this was born the group Nävgröt, which was active between 1974 and 1985. The group toured mostly in Sweden but also in Iceland, for example. It made a record recording in 1979 on the MNW brand and a series of children's television programs (Kalebassen) in 1982.

As early as the 1970s, Valkare began systematic research in music anthropology and music philosophy, which led to a doctoral degree in musicology in 1996 and the dissertation The Audiographic Field. On the relationship of music to writing and the young Bo Nilsson's strategies. At the end of the 1980s, Valkare resumed his composing in traditional art music. In 2012, Valkare published a biography of the composer Bo Nilsson and 2016 "Where does the music come from?" which is a popular scientific summary of his research and music philosophical thinking.

In 1989, the orchestral work Kinéma was awarded 1st prize in the Scandinavian composition competition announced in connection with the "Scandinavian Music Fair" in Gothenburg. Later works include the piano concerto Avventura, the oboe concerto Storia, the string quartet Febbre, "Cammino" (concerto for flute, bass clarinet and orchestra) and the flute concerto "Sous les arbres".

Valkare taught at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at the Academy of Music in Piteå and before his death was professor emeritus.