Jacob Mühlrad

Composer Jacob Mühlrad is recognized as one of Europe’s leading contemporary voices. His debut choral album TIME received 5 out of 5 stars from BBC Music Magazine, while The Economist has described him as both a “rising star” and an “unusually versatile composer.” His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Radio France, and the Konzerthaus Bamberg. He has collaborated closely with conductors like Pablo Heras-Casado, Matthias Pintscher and soloists such as Martin Fröst.

Born in 1991 in Sweden, Mühlrad received his musical education within prestigious institutions, but not in their confines: into his classical training he brought his practice of keyboard improvisation and the baggage of his Jewish heritage. From Stockholm’s Kungliga Musikhögskolan, where he studied composition under Pär Lindgren and Djuro Zivkovic and privately under Sven-David Sandström. He continued to the Royal College of Music in London. Among mentors who have opened his vistas internationally he also credits his colleague Olga Neuwirth.

The word ‘crossover’ is too narrow to capture Mühlrad’s range. Within classical institutions he has released a solo piano EP on Warner Classics and premiered a work for robotic cello with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and later on for Anyma at Sphere in Las Vegas, while beyond those circles he has collaborated with rapper 070 Shake on the album Petrichor as composer, pianist, and producer. Across these diverse projects runs a single thread: an urge to expand the language of music by connecting worlds that are rarely heard together. The same stylistic curiosity is at the core of his ‘contemporary classical’ works, typically unfolding in long stretches of uninterrupted music that create bridges between worlds and genres, and favoring immersion over conventionally segmented movements separated by polite silences and coughing.

Mühlrad first gained international recognition through his choral music, collected on the celebrated 2021 Deutsche Grammophon release TIME. Since his early work Nigun (2014), he has often returned to the legacy of Jewish scripture and ritual, drawing on it as a source of both intimate musical memory and a collective history marked by displacement and loss.

Mühlrad has in recent years expanded his orchestral writing, treating the orchestra as the richest and most layered of instruments. His recent works, often exploring organic processes, have found a place with leading ensembles. REMS was premiered in 2021 by the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado and later taken up by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Matthias Pintscher. RESIL I followed in 2024, appearing in two versions: a chamber version with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and a large-scale symphonic version with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Aivis Greters. That same year, the clarinet concerto SEMA was introduced by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Magnus Holmander under Martin Fröst. Most recently, Heliopause was commissioned by Radio France and premiered in 2025 by Ensemble Linea at the Festival Présences in Paris.         

Upcoming highlights include a performance of RESIL I by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra within their New Music Festival, and the world premiere of RESIL II by the Tasmania Symphony Orchestra.