Martin Fröst

Clarinettist, conductor and Sony Classical recording artist, Martin Fröst is known for pushing musical boundaries and has been described by the New York Times as having “a virtuosity and a musicianship unsurpassed by any clarinetist — perhaps any instrumentalist — in my memory”. Widely recognised as an artist who constantly seeks new ways to challenge and reshape the classical music arena, his repertoire encompasses mainstream clarinet works, as well as a number of contemporary pieces that he has personally championed. Winner of the 2014 Léonie Sonning Music Prize, one of the world’s highest musical honours, Fröst was the first clarinetist to be given the award and joined a prestigious list of previous recipients including Igor Stravinsky and Sir Simon Rattle. International Classical Music Awards voted him their 2022 Artist of the Year Award for his innovative global career, his impressive discography, and his philanthropy.

Fröst was named artist-in-residence with both the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León for the 2023/24 season. He continues to focus on his activities as principal conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, especially the SCO Festival Fröstivalen, a series of concerts with international guest artists, as well as an upcoming tour in October 2023. Following the successful premieres of Anna Clyne's clarinet concerto with the Royal Concertgebouworkest and the Philharmonia Orchestra, he is now pursuing this work with various orchestras such as the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. During the 2023/24 season, Martin Fröst will be premiering a new clarinet concerto, written for him by Swiss composer Michael Jarrell, to be performed by both the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse. Other scheduled highlights of the season include the return of both the Swedish Radio Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris, as well as Sally Beamish's Double Concerto Distans with violinist Janine Jansen, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

His latest album for Sony Classical, Night Passages, was released on April 22, 2022. Together with renowned pianist Roland Pöntinen and legendary double bassist Sébastien Dubé, Fröst offers a nocturnal journey intertwining the playful and the profound, reimagining classics from the Baroque era, while flirting with jazz and folk music.

As a soloist, Martin Fröst has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with leading international artists, including Yuja Wang, Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Roland Pöntinen, and Antoine Tamestit. He performs at international events such as the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and Mostly Mozart in New York. Fröst has performed in some of the world's greatest concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and Berlin's Konzerthaus. He has toured Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. He was artist-in-residence at the Royal Concertgebouworkest for the 2022/23 season, making him the first wind instrumentalist to receive the honor.

In recent years, he has successfully laid down a number of milestones in his conducting career, the most important being his appointment as principal conductor with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra for the 2019/20 season. Together, they are embarking on a musical journey that explores Mozart's historical imprint on Europe through the composer's travels. This project, which will be recorded by Sony Classical over a four-year period, is the orchestra's first full ecological tour initiative, making extensive use of rail transport across Europe.

Fröst is especially renowned for his multimedia projects in collaboration Stockholm's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. These include Dollhouse, Genesis and, most recently, Retrotopia, his latest project, in which he performs as both soloist and conductor in a musical journey that not only explores new repertoire, but also seeks to challenge the traditional conventions of the classical concert.

In 2019, Fröst, a fervent advocate of the importance of musical education, launched the Martin Fröst Foundation with the support of the world's largest wind instrument manufacturer, Buffet Crampon. The Foundation aims to provide resources designed to enable and improve access to both music education and instruments for children and young people. It looks to partner with non-profit organizations and a variety of sponsors around the world, and has already established a presence in Kenya and Madagascar.