Fredrik Sjølin grew up in Trondheim and is today one of Scandinavia’s most sought-after cellists and chamber musicians of his generation. For more than twenty years, he has been a member of the Danish String Quartet, which continues to be the main focus of his professional career. The quartet also serves as Quartet in Residence at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where Fredrik has taught both cello and chamber music since 2021. Beginning in the autumn semester of 2026 and for the following two years, he will also serve as a Visiting Professor at the Ingesund School of Music.
The Danish String Quartet maintains an extensive international touring schedule, performing around 100 concerts each year. The ensemble records regularly for ECM Records and frequently teaches as guest instructors at institutions around the world.
What are you most looking forward to during your time as Visiting Professor at the Ingesund School of Music/Karlstad University?
“It’s a big question, but one of the things I appreciate most about schools like Ingesund is the opportunity to create a bubble in which to work. There are not as many distractions in Arvika as there are in larger cities, and the school is also situated in beautiful natural surroundings. I studied at the Edsberg Music Institute in Sollentuna, which is part of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. A similar dynamic developed there: you live in your own little world, much like the one I believe and know exists at Ingesund.”
What would you say is the most important quality of a chamber musician, apart from musicality and technical skill?
“My life as a musician has been shaped by my quartet. We have played together for around twenty years and toured all over the world. It is a multifaceted life. Beyond technique and musicality, it is very much about realizing that the music is greater than yourself. You set your ego aside and understand that you are part of something larger.
You could compare it to a football team, where everyone complements one another in their respective roles. At times you step forward; at other times you do not. That is a prerequisite for being part of an ensemble in which every individual is equally important to the final result and the larger context. It is when you enter that bubble that you eventually gain the insight that you are part of a whole, something greater than yourself.”
What would you like to pass on to the students you will meet at Ingesund?
“To use a well-worn Chinese proverb: You can give a person a fish for a day, or you can teach that person to fish and they will have fish every day. Rather than spending all your time correcting details in lessons, you need to talk about broader principles and more general aspects of being a musician, things that students can carry with them throughout their lives.
In that way, students develop their own understanding of who they want to be and how they can solve problems, which, hopefully, makes the teacher unnecessary over time.”
Do you have any previous connection to the Ingesund School of Music and Arvika?
“Yes. My father, who is Swedish, studied double bass at Ingesund. So I have heard a great deal about the Ingesund School of Music. I also attended an event here many years ago and have visited the school previously for teaching.”
A Warm Welcome!
Fredrik Sjølin’s visiting professorship lasts for two years and is funded by the Wettergren Foundation.
Would you like to learn more about Fredrik Sjølin and the Danish String Quartet? Visit their website.
