Magnus Holmström

I was raised in Bullmark, a little village 650 km north of Stockholm, and 30 km north-west of the Umeå coast. A turning point in my life was at a music cafÈ in Bullmark on an August night in 1987. I was 12 years old, and served coffee to the audience. There was a "Spelmanslag" (group of nyckelharpaplayers) called "Sävardraget" that performed that evening. They were playing strange instruments. My first thought was that it looked like playing a violin and typing on a typewriter at the same time. That was the first time I got in contact with the NyckelharpaI got very curious about the instrument and talked to Göran Ruthström, who was the leader of the band. He offered to lend me one of his instruments. For the following year he taught me the basics of playing Nyckelharpa. I learned to play by ear, I listened to musicians and lots of recordings of the nyckelharpa. I learned many tunes, and, of course, a lot of workshops too. _______________________________________________________________________ The year 2000 was a special year for me. I went to Eric Sahlström Institute (a nyckelharpa Institute) where I met a few of the inspiring teachers of nyckelharpa (Olov Johansson, Sonia Sahlström, Ditte Andersson, and more guest teachers).After that year I decided to play music fulltime. I did the tests for the Royal College of Music, in Stockholm but I failed because of my lack of music theory knowledge. On my third attempt I got accepted, and in year 2003 I started my education at Royal College of Music. My main teachers there were Johan Hedin and Olov Johansson. My education (Bachelor of fine art) ended in spring 2006. Iím now studying for a further two years to be a music teacher in nyckelharpa. Since 1994 Iíve been working as a teacher on different kinds of workshops, touring with groups, and playing solo. 2001-2003 I worked part-time as a music teacher at a childrenís school (10-17 year). __________________________________________________________________________ In 2004 I won the "World champion on old nyckelharpa" (kontrabasharpa). In 2006 I won in both classes "World Champion on old AND modern Nyckelharpa". Only one nyckelharpa player has done that in the history of the competition (1990 Olov Johansson, from the famous group "Väsen"). I listen to a lot of different music genres from classical, jazz, pop, rock & metal to folk music. I like to take influences from all styles of music, to make my own sound but with one ear focused on tradition. This is just the beginning