Carsten Svanberg

Biography

Since 1954 Carsten Svanberg was member of several amateur school bands in Copenhagen. After some years of studying with professional players from the Danish Radio Orchestra, Poul Ivan Møller and Thorkild Graae Jørgensen, he won his first audition in 1966 in a Military Bad. The year after (1967) he went to the Band of the royal Guard.

In 1968 Carsten became a member of the Copenhagen Brass Quintet and the following ten years they performed many concerts and produced numerous recordings. Svanberg was appointed in 1969 as principal trombone in the royal Opera orchestra in Stockholm, Sweden, but went back to Denmark the following year. In 1973 he took place rating in the international competition in Geneva and in 1974 in ARD München where he was among the four best players in the world.

In 1975 he won the audition in the Danish Concert orchestra and also won, in the same year, the position of principal trombone in the Royal Danish Orchestra where he stayed until 1980. Since 1977 Carsten has been a regular guest soloist and teacher in the United States visiting many prestigious institutions including Indiana University, Peabody, Eastman School, North Texas State University, Florida Sate, Arizona State, Harvard and the Julliard School. He made his New York debut in 1982 in Carnegie Hall with the Julliard Chamber Orchestra and received fine reviews in the New York Times. From 1977 till today Carsten has toured the United states thirty times!

Svanberg has made some 15 recordings as a soloist and chamber musician, mostly in the record format. His first CD came in 1995 with the Danish concert Band as a soloist "Trombone Concepts" Rondo CD 8349. It received excellent reviews in the International Trombone Association Journal and the magazine Fanfare. His second CD with the Danish trumpet player Ketil Christensen and the Alborg Symphony Orchestra (DK) was released in July of 1998. A more recent solo CD of classical sonatas for trombone and piano was released in 1998.

Many composers have written for him over the years including Vagn Holmboe (Danish), Ole Schmidt (Danish), Leif Thybo (Danish), Frigyes Hidas (Hungary) and Franz Cibulka (Austria). This past summer he premiered a new concerto by Schmidt at the International Trombone Festival held in Utrecht, The Netherlands. As an organizer of brass and trombone conventions Carsten has been very active in Stockholm Sweden (1978), Helsinki Finland (1988), in Copenhagen Denmark (1986) and in 1996 was one of the organizers of the 25th International Trombone Festival held in Austria. In 1996 he was the recipient of the International trombone associations highest honor for his contributions to the trombone world as a performer and teacher. In 1985 the Danish Musicians Union presented their highest prize to Svanberg and the world known trumpet player Knud Hovaldt (Royal Danish Orchestra).

Since 1980 and till the end of 1994 Svanberg was principal trombonist in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen and was part of numerous recording projects including all the Mahler Symphonies with Maestro Leir Segerstam (Chandos CD). Since 1995, after his appointment as professor of trombone at the Academy of Music in Graz, Svanberg has lived in Austria. Svanberg has been working with famous conductors as: Kubelik, Sanderling, Tennstedt, Sinopoli, Berglund, Ehrling, Salonen, Celibidache, and Rafael de Burgos, to mention a few.

Svanberg has been a regular member of the international juries at Prague Spring (Czech Republic), Toulon (France), Munich (Germany), Porcia (Italy) and in Austria in the Prima La Musica and Gradus ad Pamassum. He has toured in Japan, Taiwan, France, Spain, Germany, Canada (Banff Art Center), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, and of course the United states. He performs on Yamaha Instruments designed in part by him.

From: International Trombone Association Honorary Life Members