Events

This World Leaders Forum program features an address, A Call, A Prayer, An Incantation, by Swedish Composer Karin Rehnqvist, followed by a moderated question and answer session with the audience. Karin Rehnqvist will discuss her search for new models of musical expression, turning fear, jubilation, wonder, grief, and ecstasy into song. Rehnqvist's talk will be enriched with performances by Swedish vocalists Lena Willemark and Ulrika Boden and musicians from the contemporary music ensemble Either/Or.

One of Sweden's best-known and widely performed composers, Karin Rehnqvist is particularly notable for her incorporation of unusual, cross-genre forms and ensembles. Her work explores the intersection of Western classical and Swedish folk music, incorporating the traditional Nordic vocal technique kulning. A recent rave in Gramophone called her music "marvelous" and "stunning," the sort of revelatory work that "requires one to discard preconceptions of what constitutes Western art music." In 2009, she was appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, thereby becoming the first woman to hold a chair in composition in her native Sweden. To view a video highlight of Karin Rehnqvist's work, please click here.

Welcome and Introduction by:
Melissa Smey, Executive Director of Miller Theatre at Columbia University

Moderated by:
George Lewis, Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition, and Historical Musicology

Cosponsored by:
Miller Theatre