User:Guttorp/Karin Oldgren

Karin Märta Gabriella Arwén Oldgren (during a period of time, Karin Winther), born 1 november 1967 in the Danmark Parish, in Uppsala county of Sweden, is a Swedish musician and conductor.

Biography
Oldgren grew up in Luleå, where the basis of her musical career was laid with lessons in piano, violin, organ and song, and a solid schooling within the choirs of the Luleå Cathedral.

Karin Oldgren initiated her studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1986, where she studied the organ within the program for church musicians and graduated in 1991. Gradually, she shifted to a new musical track and studied conducting for four years. Her professors for choral conducting were Anders Eby amd Gustaf Sjökvist, and for orchestra conducting professor Kjell Ingebretsen. Karin Oldgren's studies led up to her diploma concert as choral conductor in 1996.

From 1994 to 2002, Oldgren was employed as choir conductor in the Täby Parish outside Stockholm. During this time, she conducted the Täby Church Chamber Choir which won the youth choir class at the international choir competition in Oskarshamn. She also competed with the choir in Llangollen in Wales and produced two records.

Between 2002 and 2016, she was active as a church musician in the S:t Johannes Parish in Stockholm where she founded the S:t Johannes Chamber Choir. The choir earned second place in the 2008 Fleischmann International Trophy, during the international choir festival in Cork, Ireland. In 2013, the choir won first prize for chamber choirs and third prize in sacral singing at the 4th International Anton Bruckner Choir Competition & Festival in Linz, Austria. . In the same competition, Oldgren was awarded as Best Conductor. With the S:t Johannes Chamber Choir, Karin Oldgren recorded two records, one with Anders Paulsson as saxophone soloist, and one with Rongedal.

Karin Oldgren has taught choir conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and has collaborated on multiple occasions with the Swedish Radio Choir and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir. Between 1998 and 2008, Karin Oldgren was the Director of the Stockholm Academic Male Chorus Stockholms Studentsångare and during this time produced several records, including the album Välkommen till våren (Traditional Swedish Songs of Light and Love) and Julens ljus (The Light of Christmas) with soloist Gunilla Backman.

In 2008, she assumed the positions of Director Musices and lecturer of choir conducting at The School of Music, Theatre and Art at Örebro University, where she stayed on until 2011. Between 2011 and 2013, Karin Oldgren was employed as Head of Choir and Church Music at the Scandinavian independent music publisher Gehrmans Musikförlag. She then returned to Örebro Uiversity and worked there between 2013 and 2019.

In 2016, Karin Oldgren assumed the office as Music Director of the Engelbrekt Parish, Stockholm. In the same year, she founded two chors, the Hjorthagen Chamber Choir and the Hjorthagen Vocal Ensemble. The Hjorthagen Chamber Choir won the Grand Prix at the 2018 Venezia in Musica, as well as the jury's special award for its stage performance, programming and dramaturgy. The Hjorthagen Vocal Ensemble has cooperated on multiple occasions with the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, including recurring concerts in the Swedish House of Nobility.

Karin Oldgren was awarded the Church of Sweden's Sankta Cecilia Prize in 2017 and in 2019 was selected as the Choir Conductor of the Year by the Swedish Choral Conductors' Association.

In January 2022, Oldgren assumed the positions as organist, conductor and artistic director of the Petri Singers and the St. Petri Youth Choir (SPUK) in the Church of Sweden in Malmö..

Selected Prizes and Awards

 * 2013 – Best conductor, Anton Bruckner Choir Competition
 * 2017 – Saint Cecilia prize, Stockholm diocese
 * 2018 – Special jury prize for "brilliant presentation, programming och dramaturgy” at the choir competition Venezia in Musica
 * 2019 – Choirleader of the year (Sweden)