A Christmas Cantata

Nils Lindberg has composed and arranged a large amount of choral works since the early 90s including a series of arrangements of Swedish folk songs and new works such as the choral suite Ljus och mörker (Light and Darkness) to lyrics by Harry Martinsson. A number of his choral works was composed for the Uppsala Cathedral, among these Mass in Dalecarlian Style (1993), Songs of Salomon (1997) and Till himlen med lovsång (To heaven with praise).

In April 1993 his Requiem received its premiere by the Swedish Radio Choir, orchestra and soloists under Gustaf Sjökvist. The work has since been performed more than 100 times, apart from in Sweden in USA, Luxemburg, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
In 2002 a sequel to the Requiem was composed, A Christmas Cantata for choir, orchestra and soloists. The work was premiered at the Stockholm Cathedral and has later been performed with great success in the US, Canada, Germany, Luxemburg, England, France and Belgium.
His “A Christmas Cantata” mixes hypnotic and sweetly melodious snippets of the Christmas story (with text from the gospels) with booming Basie-esque big band adaptations of such carols as Ding Dong! Merrily on High and God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen…