The Swedish Wind Ensemble (SWE) is Sweden´s largest civilian wind ensemble (founded in 1906 as a sextet). Today it comprises Sweden´s foremost professional wind players as well as percussionists and a double bass player. Based in Stockholm, the SWE entered a new era in 2011, as the orchestra for the first time found itself with a concert hall of its own, the former Royal Academy of Music, now called ”Musikaliska”.
The Swedish Wind Ensemble excels in a broad repertoire, ranging from contemporary music to late romaticism, Argentine tango, crossover, opera and jazz. Among the many composers who have written for the SWE are Christian Lindberg, Ingvar Karkoff, Luca Francesconi, Catharina Backman, Anders Hillborg, Marcelo Nisinman and Ann-Sofi Söderqvist.
In recent years the Swedish Wind Ensemble has travelled extensively, including successful tours to Spain, Estonia and London with Christian Lindberg, its principal conductor between 2005 and 2012. In 2010 a collaboration with the St Petersburg House of Music was initiated, resulting in acclaimed concerts at the Academic Capella, the concert hall of the Mariinsky Theatre and at the White Nights Festival. With Lindberg as conductor/soloist, the SWE has recorded five discs for BIS, featuring music by composers such as Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Edgard Varèse and Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Williams, Darius Milhaud, Ástor Piazzolla and Hugo Alfvén, Jan Sandström, Fredrik Högberg and Christian Lindberg himself.
