Hilding Rosenberg

Hilding (Constantin) Rosenberg
(b Bosjökloster, Ringsjön, Skåne, 21 June 1892; d Stockholm, 19 May 1985).

Swedish composer and conductor. In boyhood he studied the organ and the piano, and, after taking the organ examination, he held a post as organist for several years. He travelled in 1914 to Stockholm, where he studied the piano with Andersson and where in 1915 he entered the Royal Academy of Music. There he studied composition with Ellberg for a year and took a longer course in conducting. In 1916 he was introduced to Stenhammar, who gave him much encouragement. He made his first journey abroad in 1920, travelling to Berlin and Dresden and coming into contact with the music of Hauer and Schoenberg; he went on to Vienna and Paris, where he heard works by Stravinsky and Les Six. In the mid-1920s Rosenberg studied counterpoint with Stenhammar, took a leading part in the Swedish section of the ISCM and became known as an excellent chamber musician. In 1926 he began a long and fruitful association with the theatre director Per Lindberg. At the beginning of the 1930s he studied conducting with Scherchen, and from 1932 to 1934 he was coach and assistant conductor at the Royal Opera of Stockholm. Subsequently, as a result of an increasing volume of commissions from Swedish radio, he concentrated more and more on composition, though he continued to make guest appearances conducting his own works in Scandinavia and the USA (1948). He also exerted a great influence on Swedish musical life as a teacher, his pupils including Blomdahl, Lidholm and Bäck.