Bent Hallberg
b. 13 September 1932, Gothenberg, Sweden. Hallberg was something of a child prodigy at the piano. He made his first recording at the age of 15 and, in 1950, recorded an album with Arne Domnerus which was released in the USA. During the early '50s he would travel by train to Stockholm to play with the best Swedish musicians and was often in demand by visiting Americans of the stature of Lee Konitz, Stan Getz and Quincy Jones. In 1954 Hallberg moved to Stockholm to further his study of classical music at the Royal Academy of Music. Throughout the '50s and '60s, while establishing himself as one of Sweden's leading jazz musicians, Hallberg composed for string quartets and chamber groups and found himself much in demand as a session musician and composer of film and radio scores. Today he maintains this diverse output, refusing the restrictions of genre or idiom; his recent work as musical director of the Swedish Radio Jazz Group declare Hallberg's continuing fascination with composition.