Internationally acclaimed clarinetist Håkan Rosengren performs as soloist, recitalist, and chamber music partner throughout Europe, the U.S., and in Brazil, Israel, China, Japan and South Korea—from Berlin, Beijing and Bratislava, to Tel Aviv, Vilnius and Warsaw.Fanfare Magazine hailed Rosengren’s performance, “most sensitive, wide-ranging account of concerto ever recorded,” in the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony with Esa-Pekka Salonen on Sony Classical.
Concerto solo performances in Europe include Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony, Prague Philharmonic, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Porto Chamber Orchestra, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Slovakia Radio Symphony, Aukso Chamber Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic and Polish Chamber Philharmonic.
“Sensitive, lingering, colorful tone, and with his magical, light technique” was Berlin Neue Zeit’s expression of Rosengren’s playing. Lausanne Switzerland’s 24 Heures described the performance as Rosengren “combines a facile virtuosity with a sensitive musicality that permits him to reinvent his performance each evening.”
Elsewhere Rosengren has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, Minas Gerais Symphony (Brazil), Savannah Symphony, Akron Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Texas Festival Orchestra, Midland-Odessa Symphony, New West Symphony, Israeli Chamber Orchestra and Taegu Symphony Orchestra.
In his native Sweden and other Nordic countries Rosengren has repeatedly performed as soloist with nearly every major orchestra, including the Helsinki Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Odense Symphony, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony, Southern Jutland Symphony, Jönköping Symphony Orchestra, Umeå Sinfonietta and Malmö Symphony, among others.
Conductors with whom Rosengren has collaborated include Esa-Pekka Salonen, JoAnn Falletta, Grant Llewellyn, Lucinda Carver, Pascal Verrot, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Agniezska Duczmal, Kazufumi Yamashita, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Jan Krenz, Matthias Aeschbacher, Boguslaw Dawidow, Okko Kamu, Eiji Oue, Neeme Järvi, Christopher Hogwood, Jorma Panula, Stig Westerberg, Ekkehard Klemm, Leif Segerstam, Edvard Serov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, among others.
Rosengren’s New York City recital debut was accorded rave reviews. The New York Times wrote “Rosengren has an immediately memorable musical personality. His technique is excellent, his tone is beautiful and he draws a great variety of color from the instrument. Rosengren’s musicality did not seem subject to comings and goings; it informed everything he did, and made one listen intently to each piece.” The Christian Science Monitor wrote: “Here was a man who loved performing, communicating his insights with freshness, commitment and tremendous affection. Rosengren’s is the sort of talent that needs to be heard if only to remind us all that technique is not the end-all of playing—to remind us that without that extra spark, all those notes can become an empty musical experience.”
Music festivals around the world where Rosengren has performed include Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival (Dresden), Beethoven Spring Music Festival (Krakow), Haifa Music Festival (Israel), Sandviken Chamber Music Festival (Sweden), Taegu Contemporary Music Festival (South Korea), Odense Music Festival, Louisiana Contemporary Music Festival (Copenhagen), “Chamber Unlimited” Stockholm International Chamber Music Festival, Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music, Beijing Clarinet Festival, Porto Clarinet Festival and Krakow International Messiaen Festival. From 1997 to 2016, Rosengren was a member of the artist-faculty of the International Festival-Institute at Round Top (Texas). In 2006, Rosengren founded the Fayetteville Chamber Music in Fayetteville, Texas.
Rosengren has performed in recital and chamber music throughout the U. S., Europe, Israel, Brazil and Asia, collaborating with, among others, the Silesian Quartet, Cavani Quartet, Georgian Quartet, Solaris Wind Quintet, Anne Epperson, Péter Nagy, Michelle Schumann, Kathryn Stott, Marc Neikrug, Bengt Forsberg, Staffan Scheja, Janusz Olejniczak, Glenn Dicterow, Per Enoksson, Joakim Svenheden, Jorja Fleezanis, Sheryl Staples, Jonah Sirota, Bion Tsang, Andrzej Bauer, Jan Vogler, David Finckel, Aralee Dorough, Jean Ferrandis, Allan Vogel, Dennis Michel, Benjamin Kamins, Marie-Luise Neunecker, Julie Landsman, Barbara Hendricks and MariAnne Häggander.
Cleveland Plain Dealer praised Rosengren’s recent recital with “So effortless was the artistry that Rosengren and his pianist seemed to enjoy performing the concert as much as the crowd loved listening to it. Rosengren, an internationally renowned Swedish musician, played with velvety tone, flawless technique and warm temperament. In lighthearted pieces, his clarinet sparkled. In romantic works, it sang like a human voice of exceptional subtlety and range.”
Rosengren’s repertoire includes all the traditional and contemporary works for clarinet. He has performed Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time an extraordinary 50+ times in Europe and the U.S., recording the work both for Caprice and for CD Accord, the latter nominated for the Polish Frederyk Award (Polish Grammy).
A champion of new music, a number of composers have written and dedicated works to Rosengren include Poul Ruders, Anders Eliasson, Jan Sandström, Henrik Strindberg, Alexander Lason, Martin Willert and Nikola Resanovic. American composer Frank Ticheli dedicated his clarinet concerto to Rosengren, who premiered it with the Lithuanian National Symphony (orchestral version) and with the Dallas Winds (wind ensemble version) in Dallas Meyerson Symphony Hall and for the Texas Music Educators Association convention. Rosengren has since performed Ticheli’s concerto with Orchestra Riga and several American university bands including for its Chinese premiere in Shanghai.
Rosengren was a member of the 2003 ARD Munich International Clarinet Competition Jury and has also served as jury member in Italy’s Trapani International Chamber Music Competition, Portugal’s Madeira International Clarinet Competition and, in Sweden, the Soloist Prize and the International Duo Competition.
Rosengren has given masterclasses throughout Europe—Lithuanian Academy of Music (Vilnius), Kaunas (Lithuania) Conservatory of Music, Stockholm College of Music, Lisbon Academy of Music, Lisbon Conservatory, Poznan Academy of Music, Gothenburg Conservatory of Music, Malmö Conservatory of Music, Bratislava Academy of Music, among others—and throughout the United States—Cleveland Institute of Music, Baylor University, University of Texas Austin, University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Colorado, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin Madison—as well as the Rubin Academy (Tel Aviv) and Jerusalem Music Center.
First Prizes include UNESCO’s International Performer Competition, Los Angeles Arts Council Competition, and Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition. Rosengren was selected for a Solo Recitalists Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and for the Nordic Soloist Biennial and has won grants from the Swedish Royal Academy of Music and the Swedish Arts Council.
Rosengren earned degrees from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (Sölve Kingstedt), Royal Flemish Conservatory in Belgium (Walter Boeykens), and University of California (Mitchell Lurie and James Kanter) with support from the Fulbright Commission and the Scandinavia America Foundation.
Rosengren recorded solo and chamber music for Sony Classical, CD Accord, Caprice, Musica Sveciae, Nytorp and SMS Classical. His Crusell’s B-flat clarinet concerto and clarinet quartets (Caprice) recording was nominated for the Swedish Grammy Award. “Masterful” describes Rosengren’s recordings of concertos by Carl Maria von Weber and Bernhard Crusell with the Swedish Radio Symphony, Nordic Chamber Orchestra and the North Czech Philharmonic (on Musica Sveciae and SMS Classical).
Håkan Rosengren is a D’Addario Artist and a Buffet Artist, and performs on D’Addario Reserve Evolution clarinet reeds, a James Kanter mouthpiece and Buffet Tosca clarinets.