Martin Fröst - Biography

Martin Fröst was supported by Borletti-Buitoni Trust between 2003 and 2006. For an up to date biography please visit www.harrisonparrott.com

One of a small handful of truly international wind players, Martin Fröst was amongst the first artists to receive a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award winners in 2003. His repertoire encompasses mainstream clarinet works as well as a number of contemporary pieces that he has personally championed, with notable commissions including Anders Hillborg Peacock Tales (incorporating elements of mine and dance), Kalevi Aho’s Clarinet Concerto (commissioned for him by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust) and Jesper Nordin’s Emerge (a visionary piece in which a new motion-sensor technology controls a virtual orchestra based on Fröst’s movements).

Renowned for his multimedia performing projects in collaboration with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, in recent years Fröst has presented Dollhouse, Genesis and Retrotopia – his latest project to perform both as soloist and conductor in a musical journey that explores new repertoire and challenges traditional performance settings. In recent years he has made successful conducting steps with the most important being his appointment as Chief Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra from the 2019/20 season.

In the coming season Fröst will appear in some of the world’s most important concert venues, including the Barbican Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and he will tour in Europe with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Fröst has performed with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, New York Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestre National de France.

He regularly collaborates with prominent international artists and performs in leading festivals such as Verbier and Schubertiade. Other notable highlights are his artistic collaboration with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and residencies at Bamberger Symphoniker, Frankfurt hr-Sinfonieorchester and Wigmore Hall in London.

His extended discography includes a recent album with works of Messiaen by Sony Classical and world-class recordings of the classical clarinet repertoire. Winner of the 2014 Léonie Sonning Music Prize, one of the world’s highest musical honours, Fröst was the first clarinettist to be given the award and joined a prestigious list of previous recipients including Igor Stravinsky and Sir Simon Rattle.

Updated October 2018

The most important aspect of this unique award is of course that it offers me as a performer the freedom to invest a very generous sum of money into my career in ways that I find most creative and constructive. With the support, the know-how and the contacts of the Artistic Committee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust it will be possible for me to use my award to achieve some of the high artistic goals I have set for myself. I am very grateful and excited about the possibilities that lie ahead!

Photographs by Mats Bäcker, Simon Weir