Tebogo Monnakgotla

Swedish composer, born March 25, 1972 in Uppsala.

She was born and raised in Uppsala, where she started playing the cello at the music school at the age of ten. After studying music at Södra Latin, she studied cello and composition from 1994 (for Jan Sandström) at the Academy of Music in Piteå, and from 1999 composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.

She has written music for several ensembles, including the Chamber Ensemble, Musica Vitae, Avanti !, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Choir. In her music creation, she likes to use poetry and has collaborated with several poets such as Li Li, Göran Malmqvist, Oliveira Silveira and Ann Jäderlund. One of her collaborations with Li Li, Bambu in the language of birches, was named "Recommended work" in 2006 by the organization International Rostrum of Composers.

In 2007–08, Tebogo Monnakgotla was Sveriges Radio's special internal composer, an assignment that according to SR goes to "the absolute foremost young composers". She was elected a member of the Swedish Composers' Association in 2007 and is also a member of "Inversion", an association of female composers and conductors who work to bring contemporary music to a wider audience.

She was awarded the 2017 Carin Malmlöf-Forssling Prize with the following motivation: "Tebogo Monnakgotla's intelligent and present musicality shines through in the contemporary rooted language she uses in her music with a color palette that is both surprising and effective. With a natural lyrical vein, she likes to explore extreme beauty. and ugliness - from it is born something new and very thoughtful. "

In 2018, her opera Jean-Joseph was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize.