Salve Regina

Mats Bertilsson, who studied with, among others, Eric Ericson at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, started the Hjo Church Youth Choir in 1992 with only two choristers. It was originally intended to be a mixed choir, but as only girls applied for membership it gradually took on the profi le of a choir exclusively for girls.

Today the Hjo Church Youth Choir has won many international choral awards, including two gold medals in the Choir Olympics (Linz in 2000, Bremen in 2004), and is well known and highly esteemed in musical circles in Sweden as well as abroad.

In Sweden the choir, which is attached to the parish church in Hjo, performs mostly in churches. They often go on tour and have an annual concert together with the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble. In 2007 the choir made its 500th appearance!

The CD “Salve Regina” recorded a cappella in Hjo Church, reflects Christian mysticism in recently composed works as well as choral works from the Renaissance and the Romantic periods. The modern works are based on medieval hymns and antiphons, including Hodie Christus natus est, composed in 2004 expressly for the Hjo Church Youth Choir by Agneta Sköld (born 1947). The only secular work on the record is Pekka Kostiainen’s (born 1944) song about the northern lights, Revontulet.