Donald E. Osborne,  Director California Artists Management 564 Market Street, Suite 420, San Francisco, CA  94104-5412 415 362-2787 / fax: 415 362-2838 / Skype: calartistsdon  / Email

Susan Endrizzi Morris,  Director California Artists Management P.O. Box  2479, Mendocino, CA  95460-2479 707-937-4787 / cell: 415-302-1083 / Skype: sueendrizzi / Email

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Ragnar Bohlin Conductor   (updated September 2011 – please discard any previous version)

Ragnar Bohlin is renowned as one of the leading choral conductors of the world. He was named Director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2007, conducting them regularly in such pieces as Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and the B Minor Mass and preparing this ensemble for performances under internationally renowned conductors. His outstanding work was recognized with three 2010 Grammy nominations for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

Mr. Bohlin has worked frequently with The Swedish Radio Choir and conducted them on their 2010 tour of the United States. He recorded the album Visions and Non-Thoughts with the Swedish Radio Choir for Caprice that year. He has also conducted the Ericson Chamber Choir and the Opera Chorus of Stockholm. He was choir master of Stockholm’s Maria Magdalena Church and appeared regularly on Swedish radio with the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir and The Maria Vocal Ensemble. Mr. Bohlin has prepared choruses for some of the world’s foremost conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Herbert Blomstedt, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Alan Gilbert.

Mr. Bohlin studied conducting with Jorma Panula and the legendary choir director Eric Ericson, piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London on a British Council scholarship, and singing with the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda. He holds a masters degree in church music and a postgraduate degree in conducting from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Through a Sweden-America Foundation scholarship he visited choruses throughout the United States. Mr. Bohlin toured internationally with his Swedish choirs - the KFUM Chamber Choir, the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir and the Maria Vocal Ensemble - earning prizes in international competitions and many distinctions, including the prestigious Johannes Norrby Medal in 2006 for expanding the frontiers of Swedish choral music making. In June 2010 he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem.” Guest engagements this season include Handel’s Messiah with the Napa Valley Symphony Orchestra and in summer 2011, his debut conducting the Sao Paulo Symphony in Brazil.

In October 2007 Ragnar Bohlin conducted the world premiere of a new requiem by Fredrik Sixten, broadcast on Swedish Public Radio.  His recordings of a Saint Mark Passion by the same composer and “Mysterium,” of a cappella music, were released in Sweden in spring 2008. Other recordings include a CD of new jazz music by composer/pianist Elise Einarsdotter with the Maria Vocal Ensemble and special guests Rigmor Gustafsson and Lena Willemark.

Mr. Bohlin has taught at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and was Visiting Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2008.

Press Comments:

San Francisco Symphony Chorus received tremendous acclaim for Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis:”
“The final offering of the 2010-11 season had its moments of splendor and emotional radiance - most, if not all, courtesy of the Symphony Chorus, which gave a first-rate performance under director Ragnar Bohlin.”  San Francisco Chronicle – June 25, 2011

“Summarizing the night's greatest strength: the chorus, directed by Ragnar Bohlin, stood out -- lushly colored and passionate throughout, its sound gorgeously pouring through the strings in the opening "Kyrie."                            Mercury News – June 24, 2011

“The San Francisco Symphony Chorus is among the finest vocal ensembles in the country. Scrupulously prepared by director Ragnar Bohlin, the 142-member chorus brought daunting power to the heaven-storming climaxes, handled MTT’s bracing tempo for the Gloria with aplomb and sang with rapt sensitivity in the moments of spiritual repose.”                                                 The Classical Review – June 24, 2011

Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 under Michael Tilson Thomas and their own concert under Bohlin:

“The hands-down, on-your-feet stars were members of Ragnar Bohlin's San Francisco Symphony Chorus.”                                                        Bay Area Reporter – May 19, 2011

“The heroes of the evening were the members of Ragnar Bohlin's Symphony Chorus which sang with power, transparency, and a marvelous responsiveness to the text.”                                                                                  SFCclassicalVoice.org – May 7, 2011

“The real vocal star was Ragnar Bohlin’s magnificent Symphony Chorus, singing with glorious vitality and precision.”                        San Francisco Chronicle – May 9, 2011

Headline: “The Thrill of a Great Choral Performance”

“Ragnar Bohlin's San Francisco Symphony Chorus provided a blessing for Davies Symphony Hall audiences last weekend in performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, establishing the highest standard against which all future performances will be evaluated. It's impossible to put in words the thrill of 132 singers "speaking" with one voice, a voice coming from far and yet as if from deep inside the listener It was not a matter of spirituality, religiousity, hope-against-hope defiance of death, but an expression of ultimate humanity, an exaltation of music. A performance exceeding the SFS's own previous accomplishments, something from the same domain where true greatness dwells, the preparation for the concluding sonic orgy Leonard Bernstein had put his stamp on. Is this excessive praise for the SFS Chorus? Don't take my word for it. Check out Lisa Hirsch's review in this issue. Ask anybody from the audiences. Listen to former choral conductor Robert Commanday: ‘The chorus entrance was the most sensitive single moment of the performance, as Mahler intended, and the singing continued to be beautifully balanced and spiritual.’ Or The Wall Street Journal critic David Littlejohn's unrestrained characterization of the chorus as ‘sublime, best I've heard it, micromillitone control. And the brass section was pure gold ...’These are famous choruses — Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, Wiener Singakademie, Choeur de Radio France, Orféon Donostiarra, and Gulbenkian Choir — but can they equal our people, the San Francisco Giants of choral World Series? Not likely.”                        SFClassicalVoice.org - May 10, 2011

“The happening was one of the most viscerally thrilling choral performances in my experience. I have become a fanatical fan of Bohlin and the Symphony Chorus, but even from that self-admitted position of prior bias, I didn't expect the transporting experience of this concert. Next chance to hear this great chorus is at the upcoming Missa Solemnis performances, June 23-26.”                                               SFClassicalVoice.org – May 24, 2011

“Even as Michael Tilson Thomas and the orchestra were in Vienna, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus under Ragnar Bohlin stayed in town to perform a splendid concert. Bohlin, the S.F. Symphony’s Chorus Director, assembled the program with an ear to demonstrating the remarkable range of his ensemble, and the results were impressive. The Chorus made its most powerful showing in the second half’s performance of Durufle’s ‘Requiem.’ It emerged an excellent showcase for the ensemble, from the insinuating blend of voices in the opening Introit, to the radiant “In paradisum” that concluded the work 35 minutes later. In between, Bohlin elicited a wealth of detail. Durufle’s 1947 score marries Gregorian melodies to a 20th-century Impressionist’s palette, and the conductor fashioned these discrete threads into a fully integrated reading. The Chorus sounded strong yet refined in the work’s forte passages — the Sanctus brought a glorious outburst — and registered with potency in the quiet episodes: the pure tone of the Kyrie, the radiant singing of the Agnus Dei, and the glowing Lux aeterna. Best of all was the Domine Jesu; here, Bohlin achieved a softly shaded, enveloping sound that approached the mystical. The first half opened with a bit of attractive staging in Nystedt’s Immortal Bach. Bohlin, conducting with exquisite focus, drew pure-toned ‘surround sound’ from the group. Busslied followed, with Bohlin eliciting a silken vocal blend in Peter Cornelius’s setting of the Sarabande from Bach’s French Suite No. 1. Two Mahler works completed the lineup. Bohlin sculpted in handsome blocks of sound. Even with the orchestra half a world away, the Symphony’s Mahler tradition proceeds apace here at home.”                                                      SFClassicalVoice.org. – May 24, 2011

“The evening opened with Urbaitis’s Lacrimosa, a gorgeously ruminative, a cappella effusion that, makes much of modest materials, and concludes with a statement of Mozart’s Lacrimosa motif. The chorus, under the sage leadership of Ragnar Bohlin, made one eager to hear more from the Lithuanian composer.”
                                                                                      Financial Times – February 24, 2011

“The program began with Ragnar Bohlin leading 50 or so singers in a performance of ‘Lacrimosa’ by Ukrainian composer Mindaugas Urbaitis. The music's permeating stillness, redolent of Eastern Orthodoxy, was leading toward the program's next piece. In fact, Urbaitis's voices -- Bohlin seemed to pull long streamers of sound through one another -- finally coalesced in the very words and melody of the Lacrimosa portion of Mozart's Mass.”    San Jose Mercury News – February 24, 2011
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 “Last night’s program began with a setting of the ‘Lacrimosa’ text from the requiem mass by the Lithuanian composer Mindaugas Urbaitis completed in 1994.  This work was scored for eight-part a cappella chorus;  and its overall logic is one of a gradual accumulation of fragments, all of which are based on the diatonic qualities of plainchant.  Ragnar Bolin conducted this portion of the program, and it was clear that both he and his ensemble had internalized a sense of the overall progression of this music.  The initial fragments were introduced in such a way as to arrest the listener’s attention, after which that attention was capably guided, first through the gradual buildup of those textural clouds and then through the dispersal of those clouds to reveal a familiar source.  This was the first San Francisco Symphony performance of this revelatory effort, and one can only hope that more will follow in coming seasons.”
                                                                        San Francisco Examiner – February 24, 2011

 “This Lacrimosa (1994), masterfully directed by Ragnar Bohlin, clearly pointed ahead to the Mozart. Becoming more “vocal” as it progressed, it gave new life to the key of D minor.” SFCV.org – February 15, 2011

“A solid and often alluring account of this holiday standard. Ragnar Bohlin led - fastidious and appealingly attentive to detail. Bohlin's tempos tended toward the deliberate, with one or two exceptions. That paid off in the oratorio's most reflective passages - "Behold the Lamb of God" sounded especially fine.”
                                                                      San Francisco Chronicle – December 18, 2010

Conducting the Swedish Radio Choir on tour:
“I’m telling you, the members of the Swedish Radio Choir are the Olympians of choral singing, and if every choral singer got a chance to hear them, the world might hum with gorgeous music for an awfully long time. The balances among the 32 voices in the choir are unimaginably perfect; ditto the phrasing, the purity of their sound, and last, but hardly least, their unerring intonation. This was Ann Arbor’s first chance to hear the Swedish Radio Choir in an cappella concert, and on the occasion they were led by the expressive and graceful guest conductor Ragnar Bohlin, who has worked frequently with the choir in the past. The program was as fascinating and ear-opening as the singing was good. “                                                                   AnnArbor.com - February 21, 2010

“In their terrific concert Tuesday night at the suitably grand Fourth Presbyterian Church downtown, the a cappella ensemble offered a wide-ranging program under guest conductor Ragnar Bohlin. Bohlin lavished the grateful audience with two lighthearted encores.” ChicagoClassicalReview.com - February 24, 2010

 “The Swedish Radio Choir is made up of 32 instruments and their owners play them with the color and flexibility of a chamber orchestra. The Swedish choristers led by guest conductor Ragnar Bohlin made this clear from the very first notes heard on their concert.

 The Swedish Radio Choir is one of the finest a capella choirs in the world. Bohlin, who studied with Ericson in Sweden and is now chorus director of the San Francisco Symphony, was a vibrant leader, precise and keenly expressive. The Cathedral’s generous (reverberant) acoustics played some havoc with Bach’s motet ‘Singet dem Herrn,’but the choir made a glorious sound and Bohlin terraced the dynamics skillfully.

The choir’s sound was so full and rich it might have been heard in Kentucky, and there was a wealth of color and expressive detail.                                                            Cincinnati.com - February 25, 2010

 “Exquisite chorus. The chorus' very opening outburst was nearly everything that Bach can be, criss-crossing voices brilliantly delineated, the music emerging clean and vigorous with its flow and counter-flow, its celestial gears in sync, the chorus and orchestra merging as a single breathing body. Since his appointment in 2007, Bohlin has been molding this chorus, testing and perfecting its proportions to make them pour forth in a heady blend. And if there was a star of Friday's show, it was the chorus itself. Nothing was over-sung or underdone; the group's singing was felicitous, lit up from the inside, organized according to some musical golden mean.”
                                                                                   Contra Costa Times - November 2009

“A consistently reliable ensemble as it is, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus surprised
and delighted tonight with the best performance I have ever heard from it. This was a thrilling performance. What has Ragnar Bohlin wrought? A chorus of a single voice, singing with one breath, the pianissimos clearly audible, fortissimos not overdone, everything effortless and ‘musical,’ diction and projection exceptional. It was one of those rare and wonderful performances when you register a portion of the Mass on top of a musical Richter scale (by excellence, not volume), and then the next part tops it, and this incredible crescendo keeps going and going to the last note.”                   

                                                                            San Francisco Classical Voice – May 2009

“The Symphony Chorus, led by director Ragnar Bohlin, invested Handel's great outbursts with a wealth of tonal color to go with the nationalist fervor.”

                                                                               San Francisco Chronicle – May 16, 2009

 “He had particular, fine assistance from the chorus, which seems to be flowering under the leadership of its new director, Ragnar Bohlin.”

                                                                               San Francisco Chronicle – May 23, 2008

 “Bohlin proceeded to lead Poulenc’s masterpiece entirely from memory and with enormous passion and conviction. The San Francisco Symphony Chorus was in rare form, performing with excellent diction, a wide range of tone color, and exquisite balance.”                          San Francisco Classical Voice - June 6, 2008

“The San Francisco Symphony Chorus sounded crisp and bright or murmur-sweet, boisterous then refined. Its new director, Ragnar Bohlin, is doing something right; his singers breezed through their continual role changes, from peasants to drinkers, spirits or will-o'-the-wisps. It was an excellent performance.”            

                                                                              San Jose Mercury News – April 28, 2007