As a clarinettist, Robert Ek specializes in contemporary music as a chamber musician and soloist. With great curiosity and commitment, together with composers, he tries to develop the repertoire for his instrument. He has recorded around twenty records and premiered a large number of works as a soloist and as a chamber musician.
He has been a member of the acclaimed ensemble Norrbotten NEO since 2007, Sweden’s only full-time ensemble for contemporary music. Every year, Norrbotten NEO premieres a number of works by Swedish and international composers. In 2012, the ensemble received fst’s performer award for its work with contemporary music.
Robert has performed and collaborated with musicians, composers and conductors from different parts of the world. He enjoys working in the borderland between art forms and has had close collaborations with not only composers but also with writers, choreographers and filmmakers.
Robert has toured in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and performed at festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Faithful (Berlin), ISCM world music days in Stockholm and Tallinn, Musica Viva (Lisbon), Beijing Moden Music Festival.
His work in developing the repertoire has in recent years focused on live electronics and developing the clarinet as an instrument. Robert has also been a doctoral student at LTU since 2019, where the subject of his dissertation is “the augmented clarinet in intermedial chamber music performance.” The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the artistic possibilities from a multimodal perspective on musical performances with a focus on sensor data from musicians movements can be a structural part in creating intermedial performing arts.
