Born in Stockholm on 18th September 1939. He studied at the State Academy of Music in Stockholm 1959-1968 (counterpoint with Valdemar Söderholm, harmony and composition with Erland von Koch, organ with Alf Linder). He graduated as a music teacher in 1961, as church musician in 1963, organist in 1964 and solo organist in 1968. He was organist and choir master of Lidingö Missionary Church 1956-1964 and has been Director of Music at Norrmalm Church, Stockholm, since 1964. He received State Composer’s Scholarships 1970-1977 and 1978. He has given numerous organ recitals in Sweden and else where and has also made several gramophone recordings, e.g. the complete Legends of Emil Sjögren.

Roland Forsberg’s copious output is mainly dedicated to the Church and its various musical requirements, and within this genre he is one of the most widely noted composers of his generation. His organ music includes seven suites, a symphony, chorales and partitas. It also includes the great series of meditations, Betraktelser, on Biblical texts from the 1960s and Musica solenne (1965), written during a chorale study week at Vadstena Convent Church and concealing a fragment from the old Whitsun hymn Come, Holy Ghost. Artistically, this is a logical and fruitful combination of traditional styles of playing and radical cluster techniques. That same year it provided the point of departure for his first Oratorio, De tio jungfrurna. His vocal music, ranging from simple songs based on chorales, psalm settings and accompanied motets to large cantatas and oratorios includes, for example, the cantata Om Gud är för oss (1981) for mixed choir, congregation, reciter, organ and orchestra, and Jag är A och O (1982) - cathedral music for two choirs, two organs and congregation. Not infrequently in his music one finds allusions to both plainsong and Swedish folk music, but he is also very interested in new techniques of composition. His works often bear witness to great contrapuntal erudition. In addition to church music he has also composed works for the concert platform, among them several art songs and chamber music, such as three piano sonatas and sonatas for violin, flute and clarinet. He has also written concertante works for strings together with solo flute (1961) and oboe (1962).
Stig Jacobsson (1989)

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