Mikael Karlsson

Mari Carrasco's "Little Concert" - Gothenburg Opera Dance Company, Tour in Sweden (Sweden)
2025-05-08 - 2025-11-29
Four dancers as rock stars in “Little Concert” – a dance piece of contrasts for young people. It is wild and elegant, passionate and depressing.

Internationally, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani are almost as acclaimed as rock stars. Tickets for their tour performances sell out all over the world. When four of the dancers go on tour in Västra Götaland, they are not only dancers but also rock stars: a garage band surrounded by the audience, who in turn are enveloped by the music.
Choreographer Mari Carrasco creates energetic and twisted worlds with a strong affinity for music. In Little Concert, which has its world premiere during the Göteborg Opera Dance Festival in May 2025, the music is created by composer Mikael Karlsson, who has also composed the music for Alexander Ekman’s dance piece Hammer.
The piece will tour in Region Västra Götaland

Alexander Ekman's "Play" - New National Theater - Tokyo
2025-07-25 - 2025-07-27 | New National Theater – Opera Palace, Tokyo, Japan
Alexander Ekman’s PLAY, created for the Paris Opera Ballet, goes to Tokyo, Japan. All the same musicians, including Callie Day, will perform there. I will be there for the premiere.

Sophie Laplane's and James Bonas' "Mary, Queen of Scots" - Edinburgh International Festival
2025-08-15 - 2025-08-17 | Festival Theater, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
For this one Michael P. Atkinson and I have composed the score together.

Renaissance meets punk in Scottish Ballet’s retelling of the story of one of Scotland’s most famous women.

Two women. Two crowns. One story.
As her death approaches, Elizabeth I of England is haunted by memories – both real and imagined – of her cousin and rival, Mary, Queen of Scots. Bound by blood yet divided by power, their lives were a dangerous dance of ambition, intrigue and betrayal.
The two queens’ fraught relationship is explored in this stunning world premiere from Scottish Ballet’s choreographer-in-residence Sophie Laplane and co-creator James Bonas. With striking designs by Soutra Gilmour (Sunset Boulevard) and a bold new score from the team behind the 2022 International Festival sensation Coppélia, Mary, Queen of Scots reimagines the story of one of Scotland’s most famous women.
This new production imagines a Renaissance where punk meets haute couture, and where Mary and Elizabeth’s relationship inspires a rich, resonant journey through memory, history and myth.
Scottish Ballet
Sophie Laplane Choreographer & Co-Creator
James Bonas Director & Co-Creator
Mikael Karlsson & Michael P Atkinson Original Score
Soutra Gilmour Set & Costume Designer
Bonnie Beecher Lighting Designer
Anouar Brissel Projection & Video Design
There will be a post-show talk on 16 Aug after the matinee performance. Post-show talks are an informal opportunity for you to connect further with artists. It will begin 10 minutes after the performance ends and is expected to last no more than 30 minutes. You are welcome to stay for as little or as long as suits you.

Grand Guignol (with Anna von Hausswolff, Swedish Radio Symphony and Choir), Berwaldhallen, Stockholm
2025-08-29 19:00 - 21:30 UTC | Berwaldhallen, Dag Hammarskjölds väg 3, Stockholm, 115 27, Sweden
Participants

Omer Meir Wellber, conductor
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Swedish Radio Choir

Works

Mikael Karlsson & Anna von Hausswolff: Grand Guignol 42 min (final orchestration by Michael P. Atkinson)
Claude Debussy: Nocturnes 25 min
Alexander Skriabin: Poème de l’extase, Op. 54 22 min

Grand Guignol is based on a type of theatre that was born at the Théâtre du Grand Guignol in the Pigalle district of Paris in the 19th century. The primary function of these innovative and popular plays was to make the audience sensuously awaken from the mundaneness of everyday life and experience shocking, frightening, seductive, carnal and hypnotic stories that were not accepted in the high culture of the time.
Anna von Hausswolff and Mikael Karlsson have composed a piece for the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Choir that celebrates the uplifting powers of darkness and that, in the Grand Guignol tradition, embraces stories and sounds that call us to places we reflexively flee from. There, in the borderland between physical, ritual music and the tickling allure of the darkest stories, we encounter Grand Guignol.
The piece uses pulsating intensity and alternating waves of calm and aggression to create a space through text, music, and electronics in surround where great emotions and sensual liberation are at the center and where the terrible and the beautiful are embraced on equal terms – an aesthetic that characterizes both composers’ previous music.

Unga Klara's "Romeo & Julia" - Sergels Torg, Sweden
2025-09-06 - 2025-09-07
”Romeo och Julia” med Unga Klara, 6–7 september, Sergels torg.

Anne Sofie von Otter, Pekka Kuusisto, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra - So We Will Vanish - Göteborgs Konserthus (Gothenburg, Sweden)
2026-01-28 - 2026-01-29 | Gothenburg Concert House, Götaplatsen 8, Gothenburg, 412 56, Sweden
Anne Sofie von Otter and Pekka Kuusisto perform the song cycle So We Will Vanish with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra on a program that includes Ellen Reid’s music on January 28 and again January 29.
SO WE WILL VANISH
1. Doggerland
2. Firehawks
3. Saint Helena Olive
Music: Mikael Karlsson
Text: Royce Vavrek
Orchestration: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson
Program notes for So We Will Vanish:
So We Will Vanish is a song cycle about natural destruction, told by three trees that have either already been obliterated or are in the process of disappearing. The title is a quotation from director Werner Herzog:
“Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish. There’s no doubt in my heart.”
Herzog predicts that we, like the trees and countless species before us, are well-suited for extinction. The three trees in this cycle recount the stories of their own disappearance in order to underline how natural, almost inevitable it is to cease to exist.
In Doggerland, a tree on the seabed off the English coast remembers the great landmass that once stretched across what is now ocean. This region, called Doggerland, was once inhabited by mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and lions, until rising waters swept over the land and drowned an entire ecosystem. Today the forest lies buried beneath the sea.
Firehawks refers to a species of hawk found in Australia. To flush out prey, these birds lift burning twigs from bushfires in their beaks, fly over shrubs or trees, drop the embers, and ignite new fires. The animals and insects sheltering inside are forced out, and the hawk can dive and capture them with ease. In this song, the tree sees the hawks approaching with fire in their beaks and realizes what is about to happen.
The Saint Helena Olive was a species of olive tree that disappeared from the wild around 1994 on the island of Saint Helena, its only natural habitat, leaving a single cutting alive in cultivation. In 2003, even that last tree died after a fungal infection. Despite numerous attempts to save her, extinction could not be prevented. The song ends with a mantra on her name.
The songs are dedicated to Anne Sofie von Otter and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Anne Sofie von Otter, Pekka Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - So We Will Vanish - Musiikkitalo Concert Hall (Hensinki, Finland)
2026-02-04 - 2026-02-05 | Musiikkitalo Concert Hall, Mannerheimintie 13 A, Helsinki, 00100, Finland
Anne Sofie von Otter and Pekka Kuusisto perform the song cycle So We Will Vanish with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on a program that includes Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Catamorphosis on January 28 and again January 29.
SO WE WILL VANISH
1. Doggerland
2. Firehawks
3. Saint Helena Olive
Music: Mikael Karlsson
Text: Royce Vavrek
Orchestration: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson
Program notes for So We Will Vanish:
So We Will Vanish is a song cycle about natural destruction, told by three trees that have either already been obliterated or are in the process of disappearing. The title is a quotation from director Werner Herzog:
“Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish. There’s no doubt in my heart.”
Herzog predicts that we, like the trees and countless species before us, are well-suited for extinction. The three trees in this cycle recount the stories of their own disappearance in order to underline how natural, almost inevitable it is to cease to exist.
In Doggerland, a tree on the seabed off the English coast remembers the great landmass that once stretched across what is now ocean. This region, called Doggerland, was once inhabited by mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and lions, until rising waters swept over the land and drowned an entire ecosystem. Today the forest lies buried beneath the sea.
Firehawks refers to a species of hawk found in Australia. To flush out prey, these birds lift burning twigs from bushfires in their beaks, fly over shrubs or trees, drop the embers, and ignite new fires. The animals and insects sheltering inside are forced out, and the hawk can dive and capture them with ease. In this song, the tree sees the hawks approaching with fire in their beaks and realizes what is about to happen.
The Saint Helena Olive was a species of olive tree that disappeared from the wild around 1994 on the island of Saint Helena, its only natural habitat, leaving a single cutting alive in cultivation. In 2003, even that last tree died after a fungal infection. Despite numerous attempts to save her, extinction could not be prevented. The song ends with a mantra on her name.
The songs are dedicated to Anne Sofie von Otter and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Sophie Laplane, James Bonas - Mary, Queen of Scots - Scottish Ballet - Sadler's Wells (London, UK)
2026-03-05 - 2026-03-08 | Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN, United Kingdom
Mary, Queen of Scots comes to Sadler’s Wells March 5-8 2026.
More info about Mary, Queen of Scots on the dedicated page on this website.
CHOREOGRAPHY, STORY: Sophie Laplane
DIRECTION, STORY: James Bonas
MUSIC: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson
LIGHTING DESIGN: Bonnie Beecher
SET, COSTUME DESIGN: Soutra Gilmour
PROJECTION, VIDEO DESIGN: Anouar Brissel

Morgann Runacre-Temple, Jessica Wright - "Arena" - Paris Opera Garnier (Paris, France)
2026-03-11 - 2026-03-28 | Paris Opera – Palais Garnier, Pl. de l'Opéra, Paris, Paris, 75009, France
What can video contribute to choreography? Can the camera itself become choreographic, making dance more visceral? These are some of the questions underlying Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple’s artistic research.
In Empreintes, the two British choreographers make their Paris Opera debut with a creation exploring the links between video and dance, set to an original score by Mikael Karlsson, composer of Play.
With the Paris Opera Étoiles, Premières Danseuses, Premiers Danseurs and Corps de Ballet
Recorded music. 17 performances.
Also on the program:
Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau is also sensitive to the arts’ interdisciplinary dimension, often using a language that combines movement and image.
His new work, Étude, explores the relationship between darkness and light, the light that allows us to imagine and create, despite doubts and shadows.

Anne Sofie von Otter, Ariane Matiakh, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra - So We Will Vanish - De Geerhallen (Norrköping, Sweden)
2026-04-11 | De Geerhallen, Norrköping
Anne Sofie von Otter and Ariane Matiakh perform the song cycle So We Will Vanish with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra on April 11 2026.
SO WE WILL VANISH
1. Doggerland
2. Firehawks
3. Saint Helena Olive
Music: Mikael Karlsson
Text: Royce Vavrek
Orchestration: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson
Program notes for So We Will Vanish:
So We Will Vanish is a song cycle about natural destruction, told by three trees that have either already been obliterated or are in the process of disappearing. The title is a quotation from director Werner Herzog:
“Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish. There’s no doubt in my heart.”
Herzog predicts that we, like the trees and countless species before us, are well-suited for extinction. The three trees in this cycle recount the stories of their own disappearance in order to underline how natural, almost inevitable it is to cease to exist.
In Doggerland, a tree on the seabed off the English coast remembers the great landmass that once stretched across what is now ocean. This region, called Doggerland, was once inhabited by mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and lions, until rising waters swept over the land and drowned an entire ecosystem. Today the forest lies buried beneath the sea.
Firehawks refers to a species of hawk found in Australia. To flush out prey, these birds lift burning twigs from bushfires in their beaks, fly over shrubs or trees, drop the embers, and ignite new fires. The animals and insects sheltering inside are forced out, and the hawk can dive and capture them with ease. In this song, the tree sees the hawks approaching with fire in their beaks and realizes what is about to happen.
The Saint Helena Olive was a species of olive tree that disappeared from the wild around 1994 on the island of Saint Helena, its only natural habitat, leaving a single cutting alive in cultivation. In 2003, even that last tree died after a fungal infection. Despite numerous attempts to save her, extinction could not be prevented. The song ends with a mantra on her name.
The songs are dedicated to Anne Sofie von Otter and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
“Mikael Karlsson skrev sina tre orkestersånger på uppmaning av Anne Sofie von Otter. Hon är en av våra internationellt mest framgångsrika mezzosopraner, har hela världen som arbetsfält, och har en repertoar som sträcker sig från tidig barock till modernism, jazz och visor. Mikael Karlsson är också en framgångsrik tonsättare. År 2022 spelades hans opera Melancholia för fulla hus i Stockholm, och nu senast operan Fanny och Alexander med nio fullsatta föreställningar i operahuset La Monnaie i Bryssel. Texten till So We Will Vanish handlar om hur vår natur förstörs och hur växter och djurarter för evigt försvinner – precis som det en dag kan hända även med mänskligt liv.” From the orchestra’s website.

Alexander Ekman's "Midsummer Night's Dream" - Joffrey Ballet - Zellerbach Hall (Berkeley, CA)
2026-04-17 - 2026-04-19 | Zellerbach Hall, 101 Zellerbach Hal, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Joffrey Ballet brings Alexander Ekman’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” to Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA (USA). More info about Midsummer Night’s Dream on my dedicated webpage for the piece.
“Straying far from Shakespeare’s familiar path, the peerless Joffrey Ballet returns to Berkeley with Alexander Ekman’s daring and exuberant Midsummer Night’s Dream, a mind-bending trip to a surreal realm of unearthly delights. This “odd, wonderful, provocative and utterly original work” (Chicago Sun Times) begins during the traditional Scandinavian summer solstice festival—the dancers celebrating a day of revelry and romance under the maypole—but soon blossoms into a sensual, otherworldly fantasy. Featuring Swedish indie rock sensation Anna von Hausswolff and performed to a score by composer Mikael Karlsson, Midsummer is a bold fusion of classical and contemporary ballet that artfully blurs the line between the real and the imagined, and makes us wonder, is it all a dream?”
Vocalist: Anna von Hausswolff

Sophie Laplane, James Bonas - Mary, Queen of Scots - Scottish Ballet - Spoleto Festival (Charleston, USA)
2026-05-22 - 2026-06-07 | Spoleto Festival (Charleston SC), 14 George St, Charleston, SC, 29401, United States
Mary, Queen of Scots comes to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Performance dates during the festival will be announced in January 2026.
More info about Mary, Queen of Scots on the dedicated page on this website.
CHOREOGRAPHY, STORY: Sophie Laplane
DIRECTION, STORY: James Bonas
MUSIC: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson
LIGHTING DESIGN: Bonnie Beecher
SET, COSTUME DESIGN: Soutra Gilmour
PROJECTION, VIDEO DESIGN: Anouar Brissel

Sophie Laplane, James Bonas - Mary, Queen of Scots - Scottish Ballet - Lincoln Center (New York City, USA)
2026-06-04 - 2026-06-06 | Lincoln Center, David H Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY, 10023, United States
Mary, Queen of Scots comes to Lincoln Center, David H Koch Theater June 4-6 2026.
More info about Mary, Queen of Scots on the dedicated page on this website.
CHOREOGRAPHY, STORY: Sophie Laplane
DIRECTION, STORY: James Bonas
MUSIC: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson
LIGHTING DESIGN: Bonnie Beecher
SET, COSTUME DESIGN: Soutra Gilmour
PROJECTION, VIDEO DESIGN: Anouar Brissel

Alexander Ekman's "Midsummer Night's Dream" - Dortmund Ballet - LG Arts Center (Seoul, South Korea)
2026-06-12 - 2026-06-14 | LG Arts Center, 136 Magokjungang-ro, Seoul, Gangseo-gu, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
Dortmund Ballet brings Alexander Ekman’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” to the LG Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea.
More info about Midsummer Night’s Dream on my dedicated webpage for the piece.
