Ragnar Bohlin, Chorus Director
Ragnar Bohlin began his tenure as Chorus Director of the San Francisco Symphony in March 2007. Born in 1965, he served as choirmaster of Stockholm’s Maria Magdalena Church and holds a masters degree in organ and conducting and a postgraduate degree in conducting from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Bohlin studied with the renowned choir director Eric Ericson and studied piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London on a British Council scholarship. Through a Sweden-America Foundation scholarship he visited choruses throughout the United States. He studied singing with the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda and has also appeared as an oratory tenor. With Stockholm’s KFUM Chamber Choir, the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir and the Maria Vocal Ensemble, Bohlin has toured internationally and won numerous prizes in international competitions. He has prepared choruses for some of the world’s foremost conductors, including Herbert Blomstedt, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Alan Gilbert. Bohlin has appeared regularly on Swedish radio with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Maria Vocal Ensemble, and the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir and has worked frequently with The Ericson Chamber Choir, the Royal Philharmonic Choir and the Opera Choir of Stockholm. With the Maria Vocal Ensemble and special guests Rigmor Gustafsson and Lena Willemark, Bohlin recorded a CD of new jazz music by composer/pianist Elise Einarsdotter and lyrics by great poets including E.E. Cummings. In October 2007 Bohlin conducted the world premiere of a new requiem by composer Fredrik Sixten featuring choir, orchestra, and two soloists, broadcast on Swedish Public Radio. Bohlin’s CD recording of Sixten’s Saint Mark Passion, and another recording, Mysterium, featuring mainly a cappella music, was released in Sweden in the spring of 2008. He has taught at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and in February 2008 he was a visiting professor at Indiana University. In October 2008 he conducted a performance with trombonist/composer Christian Lindberg and the Swedish Radio Choir for release on CD. The choir will tour the U.S. with Bohlin conducting in spring 2010. He has been awarded the prestigious Johannes Norrby-medalion for expanding the frontiers of Swedish choral music making.