Meet Mathias Karlsen Björnstad | Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mathias Karlsen Björnstad and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mathias, what is the most important factor behind your success?
It is the strive to always be curious and to explore possibilities for new collaborations. Our interest in new music and working with interesting artist, composers and stages give us always and idea that we are moving forward. instead of sitting and waiting for possibilities to come we make them happen.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The Stockholm Saxophone Quartet has since the start worked with composers to create their own repertoire. And that have somehow become the reason why we still going strong. We now have a repertoire of over 800 compositions from composers all over the world. The cultural- and music life is very much changes since the start of the Quartet. We have learned that you need to be flexible and not to bee afraid to take new paths and see where it leads you. At the same time we are eager to meet audience on different levels. Not only in concert houses and great stages but also in schools playing the same repertoire for children. They are often very open minded and we need to educate them in our music. They are our future.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When our friends come visit we always start in our cosy studio. A red cottage in the countryside just outside Stockholm.
Then we like to show our nice concert houses and go for a good dinner in some of the many good restaurants in Stockholm. Otherwise we would strongly recommend to take a boat trip out to the islands in our beautiful Archipelago.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to recognize the starting member of the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Sven Wesrterberg who sadly past away 2022. He had the courage and drive to see that a saxophone quartet had its place in the Swedish cultural life when he started the quartet 56 years ago. The quartet have since 1969 served as an mentor for numerous composers in Sweden an abroad.

Website: https://www.stockholmsax.com

Instagram: stockholmsaxophonequartet

Facebook: Stockholm Saxophone Quartet

Youtube: Stockholm Saxophone Quartet/https://www.youtube.com/@stockholmsaxophonequartet9993

Image Credits
The credits are written in the files