Participants

• Musicians from The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

  Hanna Matell, violin
  Tony Bauer, viola
  Astrid Lindell, cello
  Emmanuel Laville, oboe
  Ulrik Nilsson, percussion

• Elisabet Ljungar, director

  Elisabet Ljungar graduated in theatre direction and violin studies. She has broad experience with various types of music, from the Baroque era to new works within opera, musicals, cabaret and spoken drama. She has worked with the Royal Swedish Opera, Göteborgsoperan, Norrlandsoperan, Värmlandsoperan, Malmö Opera, Nordnorsk Opera as well as the Stockholm and Borås city theatres. With her deep musical knowledge and expertise, she enjoys producing new music. One example is Mats Larsson Gothe’s opera about Marie Curie, Blanche och Marie, for Norrlandsoperan in 2014, nominated for best new opera in the world.

  Between 2001 and 2012, Ljungar founded and was creative director of the chamber opera company TeaterTravers, dedicated to bringing musical drama to a wider audience. Between 2015 and 2023, she was musical director and artistic director at Norrlandsoperan, and after that Nordiska Kammarorkestern, Sundsvall.

  Elisabet Ljungar is also a dramaturg, and she writes and translates libretti and plays. She is a member of the Writers Guild of Sweden.

• Konstantinos-Marios Vaziourakis

  Scientist

  Konstantinos-Marios Vaziourakis is studying at Uppsala University for a doctorate in the field of limnology – the study of inland waters – and is researching into decay processes around the Baltic Sea. Decay is degradation, but it is also a process that creates conditions for life, as the nutrition in the decayed matter supports new flora and fauna. Konstantinos’s research examines how degradation within various ecosystems is affected by climate change, as well as the effects on the energy stored on the bed of the Baltic Sea.

• Mioko Yokoyama

  Composer

  Mioko Yokoyama gained a Master’s degree in Composition both at home in Japan and at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, where she now works as a teacher. In her compositions she creates narratives using musical structure, and likes experimenting with rhythm, expectations and the element of surprise. She has been awarded the Ataka Prize, and has received grants from the YAMAHA Music Foundation, the Martin Wegelius Institute, the Sibelius Academy Foundation and the Nomura Foundation.

• Agata Bigaj

  Scientist

  Agata Bigaj is studying for a Master’s in Marine Biology at the University of Gdańsk. Her Master’s thesis is on estuaries and deltas, as well as the invertebrates to be found there. Pollutants collected along the course of rivers gather in estuaries and deltas, making them into sensitive ecosystems that are severely affected by climate change. By studying the invertebrates in these areas one can predict major changes and hopefully reduce the effects.

• Jonas Skaarud

  Composer

  Jonas Skaarud is a freelance composer resident in Oslo, where he gained a Master’s in composition. He has also studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, and is interested in sound sensitivity and the sensation of weak sound. In 2018 he was awarded the Norwegian Edvard Prize for his accordion concerto, and since 2021 he has been the recipient of a work grant from Arts Council Norway. His output has been performed on stages all over Norway, and his most recent projects include the work That was to be of a like monotony, which was premiered by the ensemble POING.

• Sriharsha Bhat

  Scientist

  Sriharsha Bhat is pursuing a doctorate at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and is developing marine robots capable of advanced manoeuvres and control strategies. Using these marine robots one can investigate previously unexplored parts of the Baltic Sea, and the robots also facilitate sampling of the sea and its flora and fauna without major expenditure. One can thereby track algal blooms and inspect seaweed farms. The robots are furthermore designed for use in mine clearance and investigation of shipwrecks.

• Maya Miro Johnson

  Composer

  Maya Miro Johnson, whose musical background is in violin-playing and conducting, is studying composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her special area is electroacoustic music, and she is interested in music at the interface between humans and machines, as well as automated functions and their expression in various art forms. In recent years she has been awarded prizes both for her compositions and for her conducting activities, and she is currently writing a work to a commission from the organisation Zeitgeist.