Listen to a biographical interview with Anders (in Swedish!) with musical examples here
CV
Anders is born in Sweden but is a citizen of both Sweden and South Africa. Being a cultural bridge between the North and the South has become a life vocation.
He studied choral conducting at the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm but confesses that his greatest teachers and inspiration comes from local folk musicians from his two musical poles; his native Dalarna in Sweden and his adopted home country South Africa.
As leader of the vocal group Fjedur Anders toured South Africa already in 1978.
The encounter with the beloved but deeply troubled country and the prominent role of singing in its liberation gave an indelible impression that shaped a lot of his consecutive work. In 1980 he returned to work a year as a volunteer within the Lutheran Church with choral music and youth in the township of Gugulethu, and Athlone in Cape Town. Back home in Sweden the work with Fjedur continued. Alongside exploring the fusion between Swedish traditional music, choral music and jazz, in concert and on vinyl together with some of the jazz greats of Sweden like Arne Domnérus, Georg Riedel and Bengt Hallberg, he arranged and produced booklets and albums with South African songs of Protest and Praise. Through the international tours of Fjedur and his own extensive workshopping the songbooks, especially “Freedom is coming”, spread rapidly. Today the music has not only become an integral part of Swedish choral life but has spread globally and been translated into a number of languages as well.
Later on Anders' attention focused on the music of Latin America through several tours to Cuba and Central America by himself and with his group Gondwana. His Swedish folk mass "Himmelen Inom” - "Heaven within", inspired by the “misa popular” of Latin America, but with words and music by Anders has won a place among the Swedish choral standards.
As a conductor and educator Anders has held inspired seminars and workshops in over 20 countries on five continents. In Sweden he has been a recurring guest-lecturer at the Music Conservatories of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Piteå and the University of Växjö, as well as in innumerable other educational institutions, choral festivals and local choirs. Anders also served as the first director of a unique world music education at the Stiernhööks gymnasium, Rättvik, Sweden. He was nominated the "Swedish Choir Leader of the Year" in 1986.
To facilitate his composing and arranging, alongside the conducting, Anders developed his own publishing company "Utryck AB", later developed into “Peace of Music Publishing AB”, which has now published more than 100 of his compositions and arrangements and has distribution in the US through Walton and Hal Leonard and in the UK through Wild Goose Publications. It is now about to open web-distribution through the homepage www.peaceofmusic.com
In South Africa Anders has, together with his wife singer-songwriter and cultural activist Jennifer Ferguson, developed the “Peace of Music Centre”, a cultural hotspot and meeting place in their home in central Johannesburg. It is hosting concerts and workshops and acts as a vantage point for local cultural activism. The work with children has been a priority, resulting in among other things the production of “Seeds of Peace”, a CD featuring some of South Africa’s most prominent artists, like Vusi Mahlasela, Gloria Bosman and Johnny Clegg together with street children.