Leif Stinnerbom, Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Leif Stinnerbom was born in Lund on 1 May 1956 and came to Arvika in Värmland when he was seven years old. The mother comes from a Saami family and Leif Stinnerbom and his three brothers have been brought up with a Saami way of thinking. In his teens, he discovered the folk music of Värmland and began to acquire the musical traditions of western Värmland.

"My interest led to me becoming a riksspelman (badge of mastery for Swedish folk muscians) for “play of songs by Jösse Härad that is true to tradition" when I was 19 years old. The interest in music also included dancing, and together with my future wife Inger and my music partner Mats Edén, we began researching music and dance traditions from the border areas between Norway and Sweden. This led to studies in musicology at Gothenburg University, and ethnology at Karlstad University College and Gothenburg University. I began my doctoral studies at the Department of Musicology, while working part-time as a music antiquarian at Värmland’s Museum, but then theater entered my life and I changed direction and career path."

In 1984, Leif Stinnerbom received an offer from Sveriges Television to be responsible for the music and dance in the TV series Gösta Berlings Saga, directed by Bengt Lagerqvist. Three years later, in 1987, he also worked together with Peter Oskarson, Theater Manager of Folkteatern in Gävleborg at the time, on the masterpiece Den Stora Vreden by Olof Högberg.

"In these contexts, I had great use of my work with folk music and dance and my training as a musicologist and ethnologist. In 1990, I was appointed Artistic Director and Director of Västanå Theater. Around the same time, my wife Inger also started making costumes for Västanå and now my eldest son Magnus is the theatre composer."

With music, dance and theater coupled with the aesthetic expression in scenography and costume, Västanå Theater creates a whole that is seen as scenic cultural heritage with roots both in Värmland and world culture. For this accomplishment, the Stinnerboms received the Royal Patriotic Society’s Cultural Heritage Medal in 2022. The theater has collaborated with Karlstad University and Ingesund School of Music for many years.

"After all, art is constantly exploratory from a practical perspective, whereas academia more often takes a theoretical approach to a subject. Both are equally important and it is at the intersection between theory and practice that new ideas can fertilise each other and lead to new knowledge. It is a great honour for me to receive an honorary doctorate and especially exciting to do so here at home in Värmland. It feels like I have come full circle, since I have the academic community to thank for my special way of working as a theater director."

Leif Stinnerbom sees it as a great privilege to be able to work with his passion in life. But besides music and theatre, he also enjoys spending time in the forest, hiking in the mountains, nice dinners and, of course, spending time with his family, which consists of his wife, children and grandchildren.