Jonas Lundblad

I am an affiliate research fellow in musicology. My academic work mainly concerns music history and aesthetics. At Åbo Akademi University, Finland, I am an associate professor (docent) in historical musical aesthetics.

My current work for the department consists of student supervision and the final stage of a major project to produce a history of church music in Sweden, for which I am writing a monograph on developments since 1800.

Jonas Lundblad studied church music and organ interpretation in Malmö, Lübeck and Piteå. He gained a Master of Fine Arts in Church Music (2005), Master of Music in Organ Performance (2006) and Master of Fine Arts in Music (“Concert Organist Diploma”, 2009). A prolific freelance career performing both as an organ soloist and with choirs and orchestras has taken him to countries across Europe. Lundblad has performed in various festivals, such as ”Messiaen 2008” in Stockholm, Bodö International Organ Festival, Connecting Arts: The European Organ Festival, Glasgow International Organ Festival. He has worked with ensembles such as the Malmö, Helsingborg and Tromsö Symphony Orchestras, The Vocal Ensemble and Radio Choir of the Danish Radio, Den Jyske Sinfonietta, as well as Malmö and Wasa Baroque Orchestras.

Lundblad’s wide-ranging repertoire encompasses music from half a millennium. With his dual competence in musicology, he enjoys delving into archives and libraries in pursuit of unknown or forgotten works. He currently undertakes a series of CD recordings that traverses unfamiliar streaks in Swedish organ history. The acclaimed first instalment, Claverists at the Organ: Keyboard culture in 18th century Sweden, with Caprice records, made him Artist of the Month in the Early Music show of the Swedish Radio. A following double CD on 19th century Swedish organ culture is due for release in the autumn 2021.

While a student in the concert organist class of the renowned Messiaen interpreter Hans-Ola Ericsson, Jonas learned and performed the complete organ works of the composer. Since then, the music and mental landscape of Messiaen have remained one his central influences. This repertoire was first performed at cathedrals throughout Sweden during the years 2008-2011. A second series of concerts in Stockholm was performed in 2015, as part of a three-year artistic project funded by the Swedish Research Council.

Jonas’s basic theoretical training occurred within theology, with a Master of Theology awarded in 2008 from Lund University. He was made a doctoral fellow in Systematic Theology in 2009 and was thereafter involved in teaching and research at the same university. International research was conducted as a Research Fellow at the School of Criticual Studies at Glasgow University and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Jonas work centers on theological aesthetics, especially in the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher.

As a researcher at the Department of Musicology at Uppsala University, Jonas engages with historical musical aesthetics in a variety of ways, exploring connections to both philosophy and theology. A particular interest remains the legacy of German Romanticism, as well as the following German tradition of thought and music. Jonas joined the Department in 2014 on a artistic research project on Messiaen, funded by the Swedish Research Council. After a stint of service at the classical music at the Swedish Radio, he returned in 2020. Current projects involve editorial work and research for a multi-volumed history of church music in Sweden, as well as participation in a major digitalization of musical sources from the Swedish 18th century. Jonas also specializes in the history of Swedish organ music and participates in a number of forthcoming editions of previously neglected repertoires.