The Rilke Ensemble

Back in the spring of 1980, when Gunnar Eriksson founded this new ensemble, the objective was to perform Sven-Eric Johanson’s large-scale choral symphony Duinoelegi No. 7 composed in 1954. This project was, however, never realized. The symphony is a highly demanding piece and the composer had envisioned a choir of 800. In spite of all this, the ensemble decided to adopt the name of the poet behind the elegy, Rainer Maria Rilke.
Gunnar Eriksson’s intention was to gather expressive singers with distinctly individual soloist voices and have them blend. The standard Swedish choral ideal is to sound like a string ensemble with a uniform expression, while Gunnar had other plans. In time, the ensemble evolved into a vocal sinfonietta, where each voice rings out freely.
During those early years, the Rilke Ensemble invited composers on a regular basis to the art college Gerlesborg to try out new pieces or new ideas. These summer weeks made a huge impression on the members of the ensemble and the composers alike. Gunnar Eriksson has an extensive network within the Scandinavian music scene and soon several noteworthy composers had created pieces for the ensemble, such as Åke Hermanson, Anders Hultqvist, Alfred Janson, Sven-David Sandström and Per Nørgård, from Denmark
Collaborations with instrumentalists and actors are another signature feature, along with the desire to communicate with the audience, such as by choreographing the singers’ movements in various groupings throughout the concert venue, thereby giving texture to the performance and allowing one to experience both individual voices and the choir as a whole.
Until 2006, there were only 12 members in the ensemble, though nowadays the number is somewhat higher in order to tailor performances better.
The members of the Rilke Ensemble are all highly experienced choral singers, and many are professional soloists and/or musical educators as well. They prefer to work on a project basis. And the Rilke Ensemble has toured Europe, Sweden and the US extensively. Their discography consists of two LP and ten CD releases, the most recent of which features the music of Sven-Eric Johanson.

Gunnar Eriksson

For more than 50 years, the founder and director of the Rilke Ensemble, Gunnar Eriksson, has worked with choral ensembles around the world. Starting out in Enskede with a youth choir back in the 1950s, and presently leading the Gothenburg Chamber Choir and the Rilke Ensemble, he has developed his own approach based on choral singing as an art form. You could call it a personal crusade against uninspired and run-of-the mill choral singing. His position as a professor of choral conducting at the Academy of Music and Drama at Gothenburg University has granted him a venue to inspire and be inspired by new generations of talented musicians and singers. In addition to this, far from Sweden’s borders – from Cuba and the US, to Germany, France, Japan and Taiwan – Gunnar Eriksson is often brought in to lead and inspire choirs and choral directors.
In his ongoing pursuit for excellence and a genuine expression and armed with his own quodlibet arrangements Professor Eriksson gives audiences and his singers insight into complex music. His perceptive ear for lyrics and professional courage to never give in to populist vogues make a deeper and stronger musical experience possible.
Gunnar Eriksson is a graduate of the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, studying under teachers such as Eric Ericson. As of 1994 he is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.