– NOVEMBER 2022 –
Preparing for Trespassing
Last winter, Siri Karlsson (the duo name for Maria Arnqvist and Cecilia Österholm), the Trespassing ensemble and choir, and I recorded a reworked version of Trespassing (which we premiered at Orionteatern in 2018) at Benny Andersson’s recording studio Rixmixningsverket in Stockholm, Sweden. For over 6 months now, Siri Karlsson and I have been mixing an album version while rewriting many of the songs. The album will be released in early 2022, and in April 2022, we will embark on a limited tour in Sweden with all our original performers and a much tighter and detailed Trespassing concert. Tickets are available through our presenter United Stage. The dates are
April 19 – Stockholm – Södra Teatern
April 20 – Uppsala – Uppsala Konsert och Kongress
April 23 – Piteå – Acusticum
April 27 – Göteborg (Gothenburg) – Stora Teatern

This is a very special project for me. I love Siri Karlsson and our whole ensemble. Siri Karlsson is a band that I deeply admire, and I promise that this staged concert will be something very unusual and memorable. We sold out our run at Orionteatern in 2018, and we are proud to bring the piece on the road. I very rarely perform on stage, and this is one of those rare occasions. I play piano and synthesizers, and I even sing lead vocals on a song. I hope to see you at one of our concerts, and I hope you will check back for the release date of our album.

– OCTOBER 2021 –
PLAY AT THE Paris Opera
Alexander Ekman’s full evening ballet PLAY (with music by me) is currently playing a second run at the Paris Opera. 17 performances, all sold out, and it’s the first piece that the Paris Opera Ballet presents after the pandemic shut-down. Callie Day is back as the lead vocalist, the music ensemble is mostly the same, and the new musicians are wonderful. The dancers are in top form. The sound team is incredible as always. It was a genuine thrill to see it all come together after the many months of small or canceled shows. At the end of this run 64,000 people will have seen the show at the Paris Opera since its premiere in 2017. The music is available on all streaming platforms. We’ve made some improvements on the piece since last time.

– MARCH 2021 –
MELANCHOLIA – THE OPERA (a note from the beginning)
After a long year of a lot of premieres despite the pandemic, the time has come to start the work on my next big project – an opera version of Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia, with a libretto by the always wonderful Royce Vavrek. I received the first version a few weeks ago, and let me tell you… it’s a dream. Challenging, funny, dark, wild, hallucinogenic and not at all easy for me to work with… so I have to figure it out, test things, really try to go further than before. In other words, it’s just right. I may slow down the pace of other projects now, to give this one the space it needs.

If you like my music, don’t miss this one. See you in the fall of 2023 at the Royal Swedish Opera.

INSTA
You can find me on Instagram under the handle @mika_karlsson 😉