Fredrik Ullén
I was born in 1968 in Västerĺs, Sweden. I studied the piano with Gunnar
Hallhagen and Irčne Mannheimer at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm,
and later with Liisa Pohjola at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
She
has been a particularly important influence – a great musician and teacher.
I am now working internationally as a concert pianist, with a large number of solo appearances at various international festivals. For a detailed musical CV (pdf format) please click here. Rewards, accolades, review excerpts and so on can be found on the Reviews page of this site. My main recording company is BIS. A discography and sounding examples, also from live concerts, can be found at the Recordings page. Information about chamber music collaborations is located on the Chamber Music page.
Contemporary music is a central interest of mine – natural perhaps, for a contemporary musician. Among those whose music I am working particularly intensively with, luckily in many cases in direct interaction with the composer, one could mention György Ligeti, György Kurtág, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Flynn, Barnabás Dukay, Kent Olofsson, and Christer Lindwall. Links to sites with further information on these and other interesting composers can be found under Links. Composers that I plan to play more extensively in the near future, apart from those mentioned, include John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Gyula Csapó, Brian Ferneyhough, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Charles Ives, and Alfred Schnittke as well as - among the older literature - Schubert, Beethoven, Scriabin and Nikolay Roslavets. Here is a full repertoire list in pdf format.
Recently, partly from working with the music of Kurtág, I have developed a stronger and stronger interest in composed programs where pieces from the classical/romantic literature are juxtaposed with new music: examples of what I mean can be found among the programs listed in the concert calendarium on this site. Collaboration with other art forms is another growing interest. Recently I have collaborated with choreographer Cristina Caprioli in, so far, two dance productions. Permanent chamber music partners are percussionist Jonny Axelsson and cellist Judit Csatószegi.
Complexity in music is something I have always been attracted to, provided it is of a musically interesting kind (needless to say). Among larger, highly complex piano works I have played in recent years, one could mention the complete Ligeti piano etudes, George Flynn’s epic masterpiece “Trinity”, and the Transcendental Studies of Sorabji. The later 7+ hour cycle of 100 etudes I am still working with, with around 45 of the studies performed in concert so far (43 of them in a recital at the Schleswig-Holstein festival in Aug 2003). I have a web page on Sorabji's Studies on this site, here. All these pieces have been or will be recorded for BIS.
I am also working with brain research on questions related to music. Main interests there include how the brain times and coordinates movement, brain plasticity in musicians (expertise) and creativity. The Links page of this site will reflect some of my other interests, likes and dislikes!
