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Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Forsström moves naturally between the symphonic repertoire, oratorios and intimate chamber music. With her background in church music, she is often hired as a soloist in Baroque music, but she is just as happy to sing the great late Romantic music such as Brahms' Altrapsodie and Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and newly written works. She has recorded for Musica Rediviva, Sony Classical, Chandos Records and BIS. Since 2014, she has visited the Oxford Lieder Festival several times with pianist Matti Hirvonen and toured with Schubert's Winterreise together with Bengt Forsberg. Maria Forsström also commissions new music for mezzo, marimba, organ and piano for her chamber music trio, including in collaboration with Nobel Prize winner Louise Glück. She has sung with orchestras such as Musica Aeterna, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Christoph Eschenbach, Edward Gardner, Masaaki Suzuki and Jacek Kaspszyk.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Forsström moves naturally between the symphonic repertoire, oratorios and intimate chamber music. With her background in church music, she is often hired as a soloist in Baroque music, but she is just as happy to sing the great late Romantic music such as Brahms' Altrapsodie and Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and newly written works. She has recorded for Musica Rediviva, Sony Classical, Chandos Records and BIS. Since 2014, she has visited the Oxford Lieder Festival several times with pianist Matti Hirvonen and toured with Schubert's Winterreise together with Bengt Forsberg. Maria Forsström also commissions new music for mezzo, marimba, organ and piano for her chamber music trio, including in collaboration with Nobel Prize winner Louise Glück. She has sung with orchestras such as Musica Aeterna, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Christoph Eschenbach, Edward Gardner, Masaaki Suzuki and Jacek Kaspszyk.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.

American Nathan Laube is a leading organist and teacher who is appreciated all over the world. His extensive concert career includes major venues such as the Wiener Konzerthaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Maison Radio France in Paris, Auditorium Maurice Ravel in Lyon, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and Sejong Center in Seoul. He has appeared in Europe's most famous churches and cathedrals, including Notre-Dame Cathedral and Saint-Sulpice in Paris, St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Frauenkirche in Dresden and Berliner Dom. In 2022 he performed at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He is passionate about organ design and aesthetics and also acts as a consultant for new instruments. He participated in the construction of the Gothenburg Concert Hall organ in 2021 and inaugurated the organ in Musiikkitalo in Helsinki in 2024. In 2020 he played a solo concert on Austria's largest pipe organ built by Rieger in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, and in 2023 in the cathedral in Graz. His recording of Stephen Paulus' Grand Concerto with the Nashville Symphony was awarded a Grammy in 2016. In April 2019, Nathan Laube launched the radio program All the Stops, where he explores famous organs in Europe and the United States.

"Only once have I succeeded in fully realizing my intentions, in Boléro." Maurice Ravel composed Boléro (1928) as a bold experiment in rhythm, timbre, and endurance. Originally written as ballet music for the Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein, the work is based on an almost ascetic musical material - an unchanging rhythm of the snare drum together with two simple melodies repeated without thematic development. What changes instead is the color, density, and dynamics of the orchestra. Over a sustained ostinatory rhythm, the melody wanders through the orchestra's instruments, one by one, in a slow and relentless rise toward a monumental climax. Ravel himself emphasized the monotonous and almost mechanical character of the work, describing it as a pure study in orchestration rather than an expression of drama or narrative. It is precisely this consistent limitation that gives the music its hypnotic, almost trance-like effect. Boléro immediately attracted great attention upon its premiere in Paris, and achieved worldwide success within months. It became Ravel's most famous work, remains one of the most frequently performed classical pieces in the world, and is considered one of the most iconic and powerful orchestral experiences of the 20th century.

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Gothenburg Concert Hall at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. The title Principal Guest Conductor is shared by Pekka Kuusisto from 2025. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

Hans Davidsson is an internationally active organist, church musician, researcher, author and consultant and artistic director of Gothenburg International Organ Academy. Since 2017 he is back in Gothenburg as organist in Älvsborg church. From 1986 he worked as a teacher of organ and church music at the Academy of Music at the University of Gothenburg and was appointed professor in 1988. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music 2000-2012, the Hochschule för Künste in Bremen 2006-2013 and the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2011 -2018. Among Hans Davidsson's many recordings are all organ works by Matthias Weckman, Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude and Felix Mendelssohn's Six Sonatas (Loft). Hans Davidsson was a driving force in the construction of the new Rieger organ in Gothenburg's Concert Hall, which was inaugurated in 2021.