ABOUT

Christian Holmqvist (b. 1974, Helsinki) is a Finnish composer. He studied composition privately (1992-1996) under the guidance of Lars Karlsson, composer and senior teacher at the Sibelius-Academy. As part of his studies in musicology at the University of Helsinki (1993-2002) Holmqvist participated in seminars in composition and orchestration held by composer Harri Vuori.

Holmqvist has composed works commissioned by, for example, the Helsinki Symphonic Winds, the saxophonist Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo and the mezzo-soprano Marika Kivinen. His works have been performed by the chamber orchestra Avanti!, the St. Michel Strings, the Kuopio City Orchestra and the Guards Band, and others. Conductors such as Sasha Mäkilä and Atso Almila have conducted his orchestral works. Outstanding Finnish musicians such as the violinist Annemarie Åström, the pianist Risto-Matti Marin, the accordionist Matti Pulkki, the tenor Petteri Loukio and the pianist/harpsichordist Ere Lievonen have performed his music.

Holmqvist is active as a music writer and a lecturer and participates in webcasts as a commentator on classical music. He has published musicological articles and reviews. In 2024 his book about the composer Einar Englund will be published by Fennica Gehrman.

Holmqvist's scores are mainly available either through this website, or from MusicFinland:

https://core.musicfinland.fi/composers/christian-holmqvist

Some works are published by Edition Tilli: https://www.editiontilli.fi/fi/edition-tilli/

See List of Works for further details.