"Individuality is the word you can append on the Swede Gunnar Idenstam, who ́s organ improvisations occupy their own universe - part hard apocalyptic progressive rock, part elfin folklore, part nave shaking French symphony. Idenstam ́s touch of the organ is as funky as it is majestic." Gramophone, December 2018 Gunnar Idenstam is an international concert organist, composer and folk musician. He comes from a background of classical music, but have always had a "distant love relationship" with the folk and symphonic rock of the 1970s. Today he has brought these influences into the context of organ music. To develop the wide-ranging music he creates and performs today he studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and then studied the virtuouso French tradition in Paris, under Marie-Claire Alain and Jacques Taddei. He achieved the highest honours in both countries. In 1984 he was the first - and to date, the only - musician from northern Europe to win the prestigious international competition in improvisation, the "Grand Prix de Chartres". Since 1986 he has pursued an international career as a concert organist with recitals in Europe, Japan and USA. In 2012 he was awarded the “Interpreter of the year” prize by the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. The Prize was presented to him by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. In June 2013 he received the Royal medal Litteris et Artibus. Idenstam is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since May 2013.