Nils Schweckendiek
The longtime conductor of the Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek is a champion of contemporary music who has premiered more than 100 works. He is also an important educator.
Schweckendiek was born in Germany in 1978 but grew up in Britain. He studied music at Clare College, Cambridge, and went on for conducting studies at the University of Freiburg in Germany and then to the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, where he received a master's degree in 2005. His teachers were a distinguished list that included Leif Segerstam, Neeme Järvi, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Schweckendiek made his debut at the Helsinki Opera in 2006, conducting Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. The following year, he was named artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir, a position he continues to hold. He was the conductor of the Ulm Opera in Germany from 2009 to 2013, and in 2017, he became the artistic director of the Choir of the Helsinki Music Centre. In 2012, he founded the Einojuhani Rautavaara Composition Competition and became its artistic director. He and the Helsinki Chamber Choir began an ongoing association with the BIS label in 2017, releasing an album of choral music by composer Erik Bergman.
Schweckendiek has guest conducted widely in Europe, in orchestral music, opera, and choral music, appearing with such groups as the Leipzig Opera, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He became a professor of choral conducting at the Sibelius Academy in 2014 and joined the faculty on a permanent basis in 2018. Schweckendiek was awarded the Fredrik Pacius Prize for services to Finnish music in 2020. By that time, he had recorded several more albums for BIS, all of them devoted to contemporary music except for Riemuitkaamme!: A Finnish Christmas (2017). He has also recorded for the Alba label. In 2021, Schweckendiek and the Helsinki Chamber Choir released a pair of albums, Under the Arching Heavens: A Requiem by Alex Freeman and a performance of Arvo Pärt's Passio.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
10 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Reconnaissance
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 16 jun. 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Arvo Pärt: Passio
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 3 sep. 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rautavaara: Vigilia
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek
Koormuziek - Released by BIS on 6 sep. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Riemuitkaamme!: A Finnish Christmas
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Jan Lehtola, Nils Schweckendiek
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 1 dec. 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Antti Auvinen & Sampo Haapamäki: Choral Works
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Sampo Haapamaki, Nils Schweckendiek
Koormuziek - Released by Alba on 5 mrt. 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beat Furrer: Works for Choir & Ensemble
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek, Uusinta Ensemble
Kamermuziek - Released by Toccata Classics on 5 aug. 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Under the Arching Heavens
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek
Koormuziek - Released by BIS on 8 jan. 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Reports
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek, Petri Kumela, Heikki Parviainen
Koormuziek - Released by BIS on 3 mei 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kevät kerran on koittava
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek
Koormuziek - Released by BIS on 30 nov. 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Erik Bergman: Choral Works (1936-2000)
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Schweckendiek
Koormuziek - Released by BIS on 5 mei 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo