Vara Konserthus Gothenburg Symphony plays in Vara Konserthus

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Göteborgs Konserthus, the funk gem at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2017-2018 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been Chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony. 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. 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 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.

Eight-time Grammy Award-winning composer and arranger Vince Mendoza has been at the forefront of the jazz scene for 30 years. He has written arrangements for big bands, chamber music and symphony orchestras and worked with the best musicians and singers of our time such as Björk, Gregory Porter, Chaka Khan, Elvis Costello, Alejandro Sanz, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot, Sting and Joni Mitchell. Mendoza is Composer in Residence at West Deutsche Rundfunk in Cologne and honorary conductor of the Metropole Orkest, where he was chief conductor for nine seasons. He is Artist in Residence at Vara Konserthus 2021-2024 and a teacher at USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. He has recently guest conducted both the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, as well as a number of orchestras in the USA, Scandinavia, Japan and the UK. He has composed and arranged music for the Turtle Island String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Berlin Philharmonic and Metropole Orkest and performed at the Monterey, Montreux, Berlin and North Sea Jazz Festivals. Vince Mendoza last visited Gothenburg Concert Hall in 2022 in a Nordic Jazz concert with Bohuslän Big Band.

American saxophonist, composer and producer Joe Lovano is fearless when it comes to finding new artistic expressions. He won a Grammy for his recording 52nd Street Themes and has been repeatedly named Musician of the Year and Jazz Album of the Year by DownBeat magazine. He has also received numerous awards from the Jazz Times and the Jazz Journalists Association. From 1991 to 2016, Lovano released an incredible 25 records on Blue Note Records. In 2019, he released his debut album as a bandleader on ECM Records, Trio Tapestry, with Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi. He has also released three albums with Sound Prints, a quintet he has together with trumpeter Dave Douglas. Composer Mark Anthony Turnage wrote a concerto for saxophone and chamber orchestra for Joe Lovano called A Man Descending. Conductor Michael Abene orchestrated an album of Lovano originals for the WDR Symphonic Orchestra and Big Band that was released on Blue Note and received a Grammy nomination. He has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz greats and created an extensive output for his own ensembles. Joe Lovano is also a guest lecturer at New York University's jazz program, as well as at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music.

Bohuslän Big Band is one of Sweden's foremost big bands that Quincy Jones himself has called "A World Class Jazz Orchestra". The band consists of 16 full-time musicians. Since 2004, Bohuslän Big Band has been part of Vara Konserthus' operations and is one of three regional big bands in Sweden. Bohuslän Big Band both protects and challenges the big band genre. Fearless and exploratory, they embark on collaborations with breadth and great variety. Over the years they have collaborated with international jazz giants such as Danilo Pérez, Maria Schneider, Joe Lovano, Vince Mendoza and Nils Landgren as well as played with some of our most popular artists such as Jill Johnson, Sarah Dawn Finer, Samuel Ljungblahd and Tommy Körberg. The band are also mentors for the youth big band Next Generation Big Band and collaborate with music educations to arouse curiosity and protect regrowth within the genre.