Ylva Q. Arkvik

(born 1961, resident Stockholm) is a Swedish contemporary composer. She worked as a ballet accompanist, read musicology at Uppsala University, and after graduating as a cantor, went on to study music teaching at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. It was here where she also studied composition, earning her diploma in 2000. Arkvik has written pieces for most orchestral settings, including electro acoustic music, chamber and orchestral music, opera and theatre music. What inspires her is the synthesis of different forms of expression, which has led to collaborations with artists from very diverse fields, such as sculpture, dance and poetry. She has also written several solo works for specific musicians, as well as pieces uniting instrumentalists with electronics. She wrote a chamber opera, Solitario, with poet Eva Runefelt, and an emotionally charged mini-opera Du får inte gå! with author Eva Ström based on the events of 9/11. Her music is often harsh, even passionately intense at times, but is mostly mournfully restrained and steeped in a kind of abrasive melodic tincture. Pieces exemplifying these traits include Tid läggs som tunt papper över beröringarna, for string quintet and Que for saxophone quartet and Skarpa, vassa for solo violin. Arkvik is firmly rooted in the modernist tradition with an intensely concentrated mode of expression.
Selected works: A challenge to humanity, 2008, for mixed Coro, wind ocrh; Tidsgömmor, 2005, for 2 S, mixed choir, orch and electronics; De som varit, se som ska komma, de somblev, 199-2002 for orch; Barnet och de grå, 2007, chamber opera for 2 S, pf, perc, sax-a;Solitario, 1999, chamber opera for 2 S, 1 Mzs, 2 Br , chamber orch, elcetronics; libretto E.Runefelt; Psalm 23 o 142, 2009, for electronics, Restless wind, 2007, for vl and electronics; Capriccio quasi fantasia for piano, 2010, for åf solo; Spread it out, 2010, for pf and electronics; Dance with me!, 2003, for pf and electronics.
Publications direction: Available at Svensk Musik/Swedmic AB

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