Bengt Hambraeus

Membre honoraire de la CEC / Honorary CEC Member

Composer, performer, scholar, and educator, Dr. Hambraeus was born on January 29, 1928 in Stockholm. He received his early education in Sweden and was granted his Ph.D. from Uppsala University in 1956 for a study of Renaissance music, following which he worked in Milan and Darmstadt as an early pioneer in electroacoustic music.

From 1957-72 he worked for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation in Stockholm and rose to the position of head of music production in 1968.

Emigrating to Canada, he joined the Faculty of Music at McGill University in 1972 and from then until his retirement in 1995 he taught composition, theory, musicology, and organ improvisation. He was named Emeritus Professor in 1995. His many pupils hold leading positions in musical organizations and institutions both within Canada and around the world. Amongst his many memberships are those in the Canadian League of Composers, the Royal Swedish Music Academy, and the Swedish Composers Society. He was honoured by the King of Sweden in 1986 when he was awarded the Royal Swedish Gold Medal Litteris et Artibus.

One of the leading experimental composers of the 1950s and a composer whose outlook encompassed world music, his oeuvre, which runs close to 200 compositions, covers a wide range of genres from orchestral pieces and opera to chamber and keyboard music. Foremost amongst his compositions is the large-scale choral trilogy Constellations V (1982-83), Symphonia Sacra (1985-86) and Apocalipsis (1987), and the great pedagogical work, Livre díorgue (1981), 48 organ pieces of progressive difficulty in four volumes. Dr. Hambraeusí music is widely known through the broadcast media and in numerous recordings. Author of many articles, essays, and books on musicological topics from he 16th through the 20th century, his most recent book is Aspects of Twentieth-Century Performance Practice: memories and reflections (1997)