Betsy Jolas. Photo: Jenny Leyman
International Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas
This year’s International Composer Festival is dedicated to the French-American composer Betsy Jolas. She is the same age as Konserthuset and turns 100 in August.
In her Paris circle were figures such as James Joyce, Henri Matisse and Ernest Hemingway. Now the French-American composer is presented in the Composer Festival with orchestral and chamber music – including a world premiere.
Betsy Jolas studied composition in Paris in the 1940s. At the festival opening with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft, trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger also appears, having worked closely with Jolas. “She has dined with Stravinsky and studied with Milhaud, served as assistant to and succeeded Messiaen …”, Hardenberger remarked a few years ago, noting that she is part of modern music history.
For the Composer Festival, Betsy Jolas has chosen to place her own music in dialogue with that of others – like a conversation with history and with composers she has, in some cases, known as colleagues. The carefully curated and finely balanced programmes therefore also include music by Maurice Ravel and Albert Roussel, Dmitri Shostakovich, Tōru Takemitsu and Witold Lutosławski – and, of course, Olivier Messiaen.
Read the portrait article on Betsy Jolas in Lyssna magazine (in Swedish)
Concerts
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – Opening
Summer seas, true stories and ballet music inspired by Greek mythology.
Thursday 5 November 2026 19.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – Opening
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – Opening
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Genre: Orchestral performance
Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – Side Roads
Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen with the visiting Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Emilia Hoving conducts.
Friday 6 November 2026 19.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – Side Roads
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – Side Roads
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Genre: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – True Stories
Summer seas and ballet music inspired by Greek mythology.
Saturday 7 November 2026 15.00Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – True Stories
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – True Stories
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Genre: Chamber music
Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – The End of Time
Musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra perform Messiaen’s modern classic Quartet for the End of Time and premiere newly composed music by Betsy Jolas.
Sunday 8 November 2026 20.30Tickets go on sale to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – The End of Time
Presale for subscribers from to Composer Festival with Betsy Jolas – The End of Time
