My friend Kristofer Wåhlander

My friend Kristofer Wåhlander is a conductor. He was born on November 12th 1974 in Löddeköpinge, Kävlinge Municipality and since 2006 he lives with his wife and two children in Barsebäck Harbour. When I first met Kristofer he was a teen-age boy and we both acted in the same stage-plays between 1985 and 1992. Then we met again a couple of years ago and started a friendship as grown-up men. Kristofer Wåhlander was educated during four years at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England. Then he continued his training for two more years to become a conductor at Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in S:t Petersburg, Russia.  Kristofer has been conducting several orchestras over the years. In 2001 he started S:t Petersburg Festival Orchestra, but has also been working with Iceland’s Symphony Orchestra, S:t Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, S:t Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra, Southern Jutlands Symphony Orchestra in Denmark etc.

Between 2004 and 2007 Kristofer also was the artistic leader for the festival Nordic Music in Saint Petersburg. They have as aim to spread Scandinavian music in Russia. In 2006 SVT2, Swedish Television Channel 2 sent a documentary about Kristofer made by the film-maker Viveca Ringmar. It was called “Musik på liv och död”/”Music on life and death”. That same year Kristofer released a cd on La Forza with Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony. In 2010 he also started Lundalands filharmoniska orkester, in co-operation with Kävlinge Municipality. Now Kristofer also has a website of his own at http://www.kristoferwahlander.com.

Two nights ago I went to Lunds Stadshall to listen to a concert played by Lundalands filharmoniska orkester. It was a great joy to see Kristofer conduct and listen to the beautiful music performed with such skill. The pieces played that night were: “Marcia” by Dag Wirén, “Romance” from “Pastoralsvit” by Lars-Erik Larsson, “Broken heart”, “The Spring”, and “Anitra’s Dance” from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg. They also performed “Andante “by Jean Sibelius and various pieces by Piotr Tchaikovsky. Listening to all this marvellous music is a great joy and this kind of music make me sometimes shiver of pleasure. I love music… Different kinds of music. Classical pieces like these appeal to certain sides of me, while other styles evoke other feelings and needs. Music is vital for the benefit of the soul, and that’s why I fully can understand why Kristofer Wåhlander chose a life filled with it.

Anders Moberg, May 12th 2013