Mats Lidström

Stockholm-born, London-based Mats Lidstrom is both one of Sweden's leading cello virtuosos and a noted composer and arranger. But his résumé hardly ends there, as he is a highly respected professor of cello at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Music and founder of CelloLid.com, a music publishing company devoted largely to his own works and to transcriptions for cello of <a href="spotify:artist:5aIqB5nVVvmFsvSdExz408">J.S. Bach</a> compositions. As a performer Lidstrom has appeared throughout Europe, the U.K., and U.S., and with many of the leading orchestras, including the <a href="spotify:artist:5yxyJsFanEAuwSM5kOuZKc">London Symphony</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0MvSBMGRQJY3mRwIbJsqF1">Royal Philharmonic</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:35NnUEPKGspM23lTZvK3cb">Czech Philharmonic</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:30ywQdA4ElkX92wuEe9YdP">Dallas Symphony</a>. A veteran of radio and television broadcasts in the U.K., U.S., and Japan, he has appeared at many of the leading concert venues, including London's Wigmore Hall and New York City's Alice Tully Hall. His repertory is eclectic and broad, taking in works by <a href="spotify:artist:5aIqB5nVVvmFsvSdExz408">J.S. Bach</a>, Rameau, <a href="spotify:artist:5wTAi7QkpP6kp8a54lmTOq">Brahms</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:436sYg6CZhNefQJogaXeK0">Saint-Saëns</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2haoq62QRffBi42wBW8hWn">Halffter</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6nZiWg5ZB511S24WmB7TCV">Scriabin</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:777ILKUd9KdXnQq0UX9G36">Koechlin</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0Kekt6CKSo0m5mivKcoH51">Rachmaninov</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3UaJz1tq0BBPzJBPgkBarb">Korngold</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6rrwIOOzyvn76SDbkxjIjS">Cole Porter</a>. Lidstrom has made numerous recordings for such labels as <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Decca%22">Decca</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22DG%22">DG</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22EMI%22">EMI</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22BIS%22">BIS</a>.

Mats Lidstrom was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1959. He studied music at Gothenburg University with Maja Vogl and at Juilliard with <a href="spotify:artist:1Yz1XpSYm07FHAEoPSDl7Y">Leonard Rose</a> and Channing Robbins. Lidstrom served as principal cellist with several Swedish orchestras and then with a number abroad, including the <a href="spotify:artist:0MvSBMGRQJY3mRwIbJsqF1">Royal Philharmonic</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5yxyJsFanEAuwSM5kOuZKc">London Symphony</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:09KZU0NsS7jRa5p0SflmGY">Philharmonia</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5xBSsPfZtPItmn72C2EHVf">Royal Scottish NO</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5cp6B8bMNsXdQKgE6exdzx">Oslo Philharmonic</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6yeL5iw4hXNZtd8T7FOoFU">Los Angeles Philharmonic</a>.

Lidstrom also managed to branch out as a soloist and chamber player. In 1993, having already taught at Gothenburg University, he accepted a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music. Among his earliest successful recordings was a 1995 <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22BIS%22">BIS</a> CD of the <a href="spotify:artist:46wMXZ6bEoXUlToxUglEtY">Kabalevsky</a> Second Concerto and <a href="spotify:artist:5WIoytpqi3VWoFSHnl49in">Khachaturian</a> Concerto, with <a href="spotify:artist:20iZXzMb8LoWXOeca32i82">Vladimir Ashkenazy</a> conducting.

Lidstrom was also busy as a composer, turning out such works as The Sea of Flowers Is Rising Higher, elegy for solo cello (1997), written in remembrance of Princess Diana. In 1998 Lidstrom was made honorary associate at the RAM.

In 2004 Lidstrom performed the premiere of his Suite Tintin, for cello and piano, a work inspired by Georges Rémi's comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin, which Lidstrom has admired from childhood. During the 2004-2005 concert season Lidstrom served as artistic director of the London-based From Sweden, a major music festival sponsored by the Swedish government. Lidstrom remains busy on all fronts. Among his more acclaimed recordings is his 2010 <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Helios%22">Helios</a> CD, Saint-Saëns: Music for Cello (originally issued in 1999), with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:2GoPcJyOyFijJa1tbuOx5N">Bengt Forsberg</a>.