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The Swedish trombonist, conductor and composer Christian Lindberg, learned as a youth to play the trumpet, and subsequently began to learn the trombone at age 16. He originally borrowed a trombone to join his friends' Dixieland jazz group, inspired by records of Jack Teagarden. He attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, where his teachers included Sven-Erik Eriksson. By age 18, he had obtained a professional position in the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra. At age 20, he left his orchestral career behind to study to become a full-time soloist, saying he was bored playing in an orchestra. After further studies in Stockholm, he moved to London, where he studied with John Iveson at the Royal College of Music (1979-1980); then in Lost Angeles where he studied Ralph Sauer and Roger Bobo (1983). In 1981, he won the Nordic Soloists' Biennale competition.
Christian Lindberg is perhaps the first classical trombonist to maintain a successful full-time performing career as a soloist, now considered among the instrument's foremost exponents. He has also established himself as a conductor and composer. He made his concert debut in 1984 with the Trombone Concerto by Henri Tomasi. That same year, he signed a 3-CD recording contract with BIS Records. His first solo recording was "The Virtuoso Trombone". He regularly plays dozens of concerts a year all over the world, has won many major competitions, gives frequent lectures and master-classes, and holds the honorary title of Prince Consort Composer at London's Royal College of Music. He has recorded over 60 albums, for BIS and several other labels. His musical collaborators in Sweden have included pianist Roland Pöntinen and composer Jan Sandström.
Christian Lindberg is noted for his performances of contemporary music, as well as expanding the repertoire of concerti for trombone. In 2006, he estimated that over the prior 25 years, composers wrote 82 works for him. On September 7, 2017, he gave his 100th trombone concerto premiere. Lindberg has been very active in expanding the repertoire for his instrument. He has premiered over 300 works for trombone, over 90 of which are concertos, and has arranged or transcribed over 100 other works for the trombone. Composers who have written works for him include Alfred Schnittke, Michael Nyman, Toru Takemitsu, Christopher Rouse, Luciano Berio, and Arvo Pärt. One of his most frequent collaborators has been composer Jan Sandström, who wrote his Motorbike Concerto for Lindberg (which Lindberg performs in costume, as he does other pieces). In addition to the Sandström, his repertoire includes Luciano Berio's Sequenza V, Fredrik Högberg's The Ballad of Kit Bones and Su ba do be.
Christian Lindberg began to compose in the 1990's at the encouragement of Sandström. His first-performed work was Arabenne for trombone and strings, recorded in 1997. Since then, he has completed over 50 pieces on commission from orchestras all over the world. Other compositions have included Mandrake in the Corner, Chick 'a' bone Checkout, from 2006 and written for Charles Vernon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Kundraan (2008).
Christian Lindberg has worked extensively as a conductor with orchestras and ensembles from all over Europe (especially in the Scandinavian countries), China, Japan, and the Americas. In 2000, he made his conducting debut with the Northern Sinfonia in the UK. He served as Principal Conductor of the Nordic Chamber Orchestra (2004-2011), the Swedish Wind Ensemble (2005-2012), and the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra (2009-2018). Since 2016, he is conductor and Music Director at the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra. One of his major projects, outside of his duties as principal conductor, is a collaboration with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in the "Allan Pettersson Project.", initiated in 2011, the purpose of which is to record and issue all of Pettersson’s symphonies on CD. In 2019, he released Allan Pettersson: Violin Concerto No. 2; Symphony No. 17 (fragment), with violinist Ulf Wallin and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
Christian Lindberg lives in Stockholm with his wife and four children. His Awards include: International Trombone Association Award (1991); Litteris et Artibus (2004). In September 2015 he was voted “The Greatest Brass Player In History", by the worlds biggest classical radio station CLASSICFM, and on April 1, 2016 he was given 'Artist of the Year' at the International Classical Music Award 2016 at the Gala Ceremony in in San Sebastian, Spain.
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