Mats Edén

Swedish folk musician, riksspelman (master fiddler), composer and educator, born October 30, 1957 in Södertälje. Edén plays the violin, viola, viola d'amore, and melodeon. He lives in Dalby, outside of Lund, in the south of Sweden. From 1976 to 1980, Edén studied musicology and ethnology at the University of Gothenburg followed by composition studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music in the years 1983-87 for, among others, Bjørn Kruse, Olav Anton Thommessen and Lasse Thoresen. Since the end of the 1970s, he has been active as a folk musician on a freelance basis, but also led the folk music group Groupa since 1981. He achieved the title Riksspelman 1979 on single-row accordion, and was awarded the prestigious Zorn's gold badge in 2019. Senior lecturer in folk music at the Malmö Academy of Music. Edén was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Music in 2009.