Paula af Malmborg Ward
Biography
Paula af Malmborg Ward is one of our most distinctive opera composers. Born in 1962 in Stockholm as the daughter of conductor and opera manager Lars af Malmborg and opera singer Gunilla af Malmborg, it may seem natural, but it was popular music she devoted herself to while growing up in parallel with classical piano studies for Professor Gunnar Hallhagen.
She composed songs, arranged, sang and played piano in several groups, she worked with theatre music and television. She studied music teaching at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, and there also brought a passion for salsa music – then a relatively unknown genre in Sweden.
After a couple of years as a musical leader af Skottes Musikteater in Gävle, she returned to school, where she was for another 7 years, including studies for Hans Gefors at the Malmö Academy of Music.
It is significant that her diploma work The Bomb Party (premiered in 1998 at the Gothenburg Opera) both had a breakthrough as a composer and, together with the final scene from Of Mice and Men which she wrote before, the decisive step into opera composing.
Paula af Malmborg Ward has a remarkable ease of movement across genre boundaries, and over time this movement has been boiled down to its own, unmistakable musical identity, music with a lively temperament filled with ideas.
She says: The only thing we can be absolutely certain of, and indisputable that we must conduct ourselves to, is that time passes. Therefore – time, and timing, is my first and largest parameter. I am really accurate with that. Once I have set the timing, I can then rummage around in melody, harmony, timbre and rhythm without losing sight of the piece as a whole.
This ‘security system’ makes her able to add e.g. a touch of tango or bossa in a work if the context demands it. In many of her works the inspiration comes from text or picture, and often the humour has a prominent role, as in her lustful settlement with samba music in the orchestral work Sambal Dente.
Composer in Residence in The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra 2011-13
Composer’s weekend at the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra May 2011
Composer in Residence in The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra 2006-09
Degrees:
Composition Master (4 years) 1997, Malmö Academy of Music
Composition Bachelor (3 years) 1992, Royal College of Music, Stockholm
Master of fine arts (4 years) 1983, Royal College of Music, Stockholm
Member of SKAP since 1991
Member of FST since 1999, in the board 2009-15
Member of the Royal Academy of Music since 2008
Member of the Artistic Council of Music Development and Heritage Sweden 2011
Among the awards:
FST’s Rosenberg Prize 2020
Prix Italia, 1st prize 2006 for The foundling woman
Carin Malmlöf Forssling Prize 2006
Tony Lundman 2004/Paula af Malmborg Ward 2021
For complete list of work, see: works
or in Swedish below (2018 – )
2024
Systemet – opera i en akt repetitör/pianist urpremiär januari, Atalante Göteborg
Den äng som höljts – blandad kör (Åsa Hagberg) Stockholms domkyrkoförsamlings beställningsverk, uruppförande 17 mars Storkyrkan, Stockholm
2023
Spår vägar – vokalsymfoni uruppförande december Göteborgs symfoniker/Göteborgs symfonikers vokalensemble
Vapenlös men starkare än världens makter – blandad kör (kollektbön) Stockholms domkyrkoförsamlings beställningsverk, uruppförande december Storkyrkan, Stockholm
Mytomania – opera i två akter urpremiär oktober Göteborgsoperan
Diabas – en diabellivariation uruppförande Örebro september (Mats Jansson, piano)
In time – fanfare for organ SR P2s beställningsverk. uruppförande S:t Jacobs kyrka september
Systemet – opera i en akt (Naima Chahboun) Man must sings beställningsverk
The edge of the wedge – Kils kulturskolas beställningsverk för orkester och sång, uruppförande Kils kulturskolas 60-årsjubileum Kil april
2022
Balladen om Portern – tredje satsen i Portersviten, beställd av Frontside Gothenburg International Chamber music festival
Missa Praesentis Dialectica (1999) uruppförande Uppsala Domkyrka september.
Uppsala Akademiska Kammarkör, solister, kammarorkester
MERA Pållans låtar – dubbel-CD med nyinspelningar av 18 låtar från 80-talet (text/musik/arr/piano/sång)
Som solen och månen – barnkör, saxofonkvartett, piano, Sjungande barns beställningsverk
COOPERANDUM – cello och slagverk, UmeDuos beställningsverk
Growing, coming, filling up – sopransax solo, Andres Paulssons beställningsverk
2021
Pållans låtar – till slut, från början – dubbel-CD med nyinspelningar av 19 låtar från 80-talet
(text/musik/arr/piano/sång)
Sanctus – orgel solo
Broken bleak roe and choppy chanterelles – violin/viola, beställd till The Hartt School´s 100th anniversary
2020
Buteljernas tid – 14 porterbuteljer och ostämt piano, sats 2 ur Portersviten beställd av Frontside Gothenburg International Chamber music festival
Spår vägar – vokalensemble, orgel och orkester Göteborgs symfonikers best. verk, uruppf. december 2023
Solspel – blandad kör. Erik Westbergs Vokalensembles best. verk.
Stafettkomposition– blandad ensemble, FST´s medlemsprojekt
Vädret – blandad kör, recitation och piano (Tomas Tidholm) Chalmus Musikveckas best. verk
2019
Mytomania – opera i två akter, (Kerstin Perski). Premiär Göteborgsoperan oktober 2023
2018
Hjässan är kal– sceniskt verk för manskör, trumpet, dragspel och cello (Lina Ekdahl) Premiär Åbergs plåt, Tidaholm februari 2019, turné i Skaraborg våren 2019.
causeries – pianotrio, GSO´s beställningsverk för Trio Poseidon
