There’s no doubt that Hillborg seems to have an intuitive knack for getting the most out of his soloists, be it Martin Fröst in the now iconic Clarinet Concerto ‘Peacock Tales’, Pekka Kuusisto in the inventive and zany Bach Materia, or the haunting recent Cello Concerto for Nicolas Altstaedt. His next concerto has been tailored to the formidable skills of violist Lawrence Power, who will premiere it on 21 October with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Andrew Manze.

The concerto was commissioned by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra together with the Hessicherrundfunk; NTR ZaterdagMatinee, NPO Radio 4's concert series in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw; Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester; Sinfonieorchester Basel; and Aspen Music Festival supported by The Viola Commissioning Circle.

On 4 November, Power will premiere a second work by Hillborg, this time a duo for viola and piano, as part of John Kongsgaard’s Chamber Music In Napa Valley series.

The coming months also see Esa-Pekka Salonen conduct the string orchestra version of the Kongsgaard Variations with the San Francisco Symphony and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the US and Swedish premieres of Hillborg’s latest orchestral work Through Lost Landscapes (with Minnesota and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, respectively).