Born in 1958, he studied first at the Sibelius Academy in his native Finland, and then privately with Gérard Grisey and Vinko Globokar in Paris. He also attended courses given by Franco Donatoni (Siena) and Brian Ferneyhough (Darmstadt).
June 1994 saw the triumphant premiere in Tokyo of the major new orchestral work Aura - in memoriam Witold Lutos¸awski, a commission from the Suntory International Program for Music Composition, and in June 1995 his Arena was the test piece for the first International Sibelius Conductor's Competition in Helsinki. In 1995 he was the featured composer at the Aldeburgh Festival and in 1996 he was Artistic Director of the South Bank Centre's Meltdown Festival. In 1997 he was featured at the 'Ars Musica' Festival in Brussels and the Strasbourg 'Musica'.
His many honours include the Prix Italia (1986), the Koussevitsky Prize (1988), the Nordic Music Award (1988), the Prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1993) and the Best European Composer Prize at the 'young.euro.classic - Musik Sommer Berlin 2000'. He also received recommendations at the unesco International Composers' Rostrum in 1982 (for ...de Tartuffe, je crois) and in 1986 (for Kraft).
His orchestral piece Chorale, based on Bach's theme 'Es ist genug', was the highlight of 'Related Rocks - The World of Magnus Lindberg', a major event staged in London, Paris and Brussels from November 2001 to February 2002.
At present he is working on an orchestral piece commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Selected works: Quintetto dell'Estate for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1979), ...de Tartuffe, je crois for piano and string quartet (1981), Action-Situation-Signification for horn, percussion, cello, piano and live electronics (1982), Ablauf for clarinet and percussion (1983), Metal Work for accordion and percussion (1984), Kraft for symphony orchestra and soloists' ensemble (1983-85), Faust, radio piece to a text by J. Siltanen; 1985-86), Ur for chamber ensemble and live electronics (1986), Kinetics for orchestra (1989), Jeux d'anches for accordion (1989-90), Marea for orchestra (1989-90), Joy for large chamber ensemble (1990), Corrente for chamber ensemble (1991-92), Corrente II for orchestra (1992), Clarinet Quintet (1992), Duo concertante for clarinet, cello and chamber ensemble (1992), Coyote Blues for chamber ensemble (1993), Songs from North and South for children's choir (1993), Piano Concerto (1990-94), Aura - In memoriam Witold Lutos¸awski for orchestra (1993-94), Away for clarinet, percussion, piano and string instruments (1994), Arena for orchestra (1995), Arena ii for chamber ensemble (1996), Engine for chamber ensemble (1996), Related Rocks for electronics, two pianos and percussion (1997), Feria for orchestra (1997), Cantigas for orchestra (1997-99), Parada for orchestra (2001), Clarinet Concerto (2000-02), Chorale for orchestra (2002).

Jeux d'anches for accordion is Lindberg's second piece for this instrument (after Metal Work). Both have been commissioned by the accordionist Matti Rantanen, to whom Jeux d'anches is dedicated.
Written between two orchestral works, Kinetics and Marea, Jeux d'anches was for Lindberg an area of confrontation between two compositional concepts: serial and spectral. The texture, with its chains of legato chords on which musical gestures by the performer's right hand are imposed, naturally corresponds to the character of the instrument.
The title Jeux d'anches refers to organ terminology, used, among others, by César Franck to describe the sound of reed instruments. 'Writing for the accordion, in which the sound is produced by means of thin metal sheets set in motion by the movement of the air I felt as if composing for a wind orchestra' - Lindberg explained.

Risto Nieminen