Erland von Koch

Folk material influenced Erland von Koch's scores, including his variations and symphonies. Born in Stockholm in 1910 into a musical family, he studied at the Stockholm Conservatory and afterwards in Germany, in conducting as well as composition, and made his early living in radio and the cinema, including films of Ingmar Bergman in the 1940s. Symphonies, concertos, ballets, chamber music and a substantial body of writing for wind instruments followed; his works also include the Monologues for unaccompanied instruments. He taught at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and died in 2009. He taught at the Stockholm college from 1953 until 1975 and was made professor in 1968. Six symphonies and the children's opera Pelle Svanslös are among his works, and Saxophonia, a concerto for saxophone quartet and wind orchestra written in 1976 for the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, was first played in Stockholm in February 1977.