For our project Nordic Vocals United we have been able to commission Andrea Eklund to write a song for us based on the text of Edith Södergran's wonderful poem Nordisk vår - Nordic Spring.
Except for "Nordisk vår", Andrea has also arranged the song "Ant han dansa", that was originally written by Ernst V. Knape from Kokkola.
Andrea Eklund (b. 1987) is a Fenno-Swedish composer, arranger och conductor. She has a Bachelor degree in Music Education from the Sibelius Academy and a Master degree in barock singing from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Eklund has composed music for choirs, among other things "Jordens ljus" for the choir festival Norbusang and "Tranor" for the Finland Swedish Female Voice Choirs' association. With the piece Dalen she took the third place in the women's choirs' cathegory at the VocalEspoo International Choral Composition Competition 2016.
It is her second nature to move across borders of different types of music and she has recently written the music to the film Adventures of a Young Moomin (2022) . She also composed the opening song to the film Moomins and the Winter Wonderland (2017): Longing for summer.
Eklund's music has been performed by various choirs such as the Female Voice Choir Lyran, The Adolf Fredrik Girls Choir, The Academic Male Voice Choir of Helsinki, the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wegelius Chamber Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Andrea Eklund alternates between composing and conducting on a freelance basis and Eklund has earlier conducted among others the Student choir Pedavoces and the Chamber choir NOX. In the spring of 2020 she was awarded the conductor's prize of Kurt-Erik Långbacka.