Karin Dornbusch, the festival’s artistic director, resides in Basel, Switzerland, since 1995, but grew up in a family of musicians in Stockholm. She has a strong connection to both Gothenburg and the West Coast. Her father was born and raised in Gothenburg, and after diligent genealogical research, she has discovered that her paternal grandmother’s family has lived on the islands of Orust and Tjörn for several centuries.
After studying at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin and the Musikakademie der Stadt Basel, she became an internationally sought-after clarinet soloist and chamber musician. In 1996, she won the Swedish Soloist Prize and the first prize from the Basler Orchester Gesellschaft. In 1997, she was selected by concert halls in Vienna, Birmingham, Stockholm, and Athens as a soloist in the Rising Stars concert series.
She has performed as a soloist at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm. She has recorded three CDs on Caprice Records and one CD on Genuin Classics Leipzig. Her album “Nordic Clarinet Concertos” was nominated for a Swedish Grammy. As a soloist, she has performed with major symphony orchestras in Stockholm, Malmö, Gävle, Norrköping, Basel, and Zagreb under conductors such as Armin Jordan, Peter Csaba, and Daniel Harding. She is a permanent member of the ensembles Camerata Variabile Basel, Ensemble Fiacorda, and she is the principal clarinetist in CMB.
It’s a plethora of musicians Karin has performed with, including the Gringolts Quartet, Vertavo Quartet, Bennewitz Quartet, Zemlinsky Quartet, Trio Con Brio Copenhagen, Dénes Várjon, Benjamin Engeli, Georges Pludelmacher, Alasdair Beatson, Henri Sigfridsson, Hans Pålsson, David Huang, Danny Driver, Charles Owen, Håvard Gimse, Christian Ihle Hadland, Marianna Shirinyan, Bengt Forsberg, Julien Quentin, Jacob Kellerman, Jakob Koranyi, Malin Broman, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Sini Simonen, Chloë Hanslip, David Grimal, Cecilia Zilliacus, Magali Mosnier, Henrik Goldschmidt, Diego Chenna, Szabolcs Zempléni, Martin Owen, Malin Hartelius, Katarina Karnéus, and many more.
She is strongly committed to contemporary music and has collaborated with composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Dai Fujikura, Lisa Streich, Jennifer Walshe, Helena Winkelman, and Maja S.K Ratkje. The well-known Swedish composer Benjamin Staern dedicated “Worried Souls” for clarinet & bass clarinet and orchestra to her, which she has performed on several occasions in both Sweden and Germany. Most recently, in April 2022, in a critically acclaimed performance at the Stockholm Concert Hall with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emil Eliasson. From 2006 to 2017, she was the artistic director of the Båstad Chamber Music Festival, where she received the first “Guldkvasten” (Golden Broom) by KVAST in 2009 for her theme featuring 29 female composers from then and now.
Since 2019, she has been the artistic director of the FRONTSIDE, Gothenburg International Chamber Music Festival, in Sweden. Her concert programs often have an unusual composition, with her own interest in blending the familiar with the new and unknown. In addition to traditional chamber music, she is keen to open the doors to other genres such as folk music, improvisation, electronic music, and jazz.
King Carl XVI Gustaf has awarded her the medal “Litteris et Artibus,” and she is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Frontside Chamber Music Association has existed since 2019 and is largely driven by volunteer efforts, but we are highly dependent on additional financial sponsors and fundings. All contributions are used to engage fantastic musicians, rents of venues and all other things that make the festival a magical experience.
If you are interested in chamber music that goes beyond the ordinary, you should become a member! As a member, you are invited to the association’s annual meeting and participate in electing the board. You can also suggest activities for the association, thereby influencing future festivals and other events we organize. You also have the opportunity to volunteer during the festival, allowing you to enjoy wonderful chamber music without paying an entrance fee.
How do I become a member and support Frontside? Submit your information in the form below and pay the membership fee, and we will register you as a member immediately. Please also indicate which chamber music you love the most. Together with your personal information, this helps us better understand who our members are. How we handle your information can be read under the GDPR section.
You renew your membership every fall term – we’ll remind you! Alternatively, you can purchase a lifetime membership and thus become a permanent member with a one-time fee.
If you join as a new member in the spring, your payment also covers the following year’s membership.
How do I do it and what does it cost? You can pay the membership fee to Bankgiro 5318-7969 or via Swish 123 356 63 95. Always include your name and, if paying via bankgiro, your mobile number.
Welcome as a member!
For requests, feedback, and additional information, fill in your message in the form at the bottom or send an email to info@frontside-festival.se
The General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, came into force within the EU on May 25, 2018.
How does Frontside handle its membership register? In our membership register, we store your name, address details, email address, phone number, and birth year. If you leave the association, we will retain your information for a maximum of seven (7) years before deleting it.
Who has access to my information? We register your details digitally in our membership register. Only you (first party) and individuals with trusted roles in the association (second party) have access to your information. No information is shared with third parties.
You can request to see what information we have collected about you at any time.
Validity? By becoming a member of the association, you enter into an agreement regarding which information about you can be stored with us and who has access to this information, as described above. This agreement is valid indefinitely, as long as you are a member of the Frontside Chamber Music Association.
Do I have the right to have my information deleted? According to GDPR, you have the right to have your information deleted, but you will also lose your membership in the association. To request this, send an email to info@frontside-festival.se and ask for your stored information to be deleted.
