biography

Biography

"Karl Lundeberg is such a sensitive, imaginative musician and composer with a real sense of theater...more than a performer and writer, he is a genuine collaborator, someone on whom I could always depend to provide the best musical solution" -- Susan Sontag

"Karl has such a tremendous grasp of so many different genres of music, that anything is liable to happen....from Bartok to blues, he finds a way to magically weave a musical tapestry that is always inventive, always exciting and always looking for new musical ground to break" -- Dr George Butler, Exec VP for Jazz, Columbia Records

"Such an alive musical mind...bristling with ideas...looking for new answers. Write what you want to listen to, Karl." -- John Cage

Karl Lundeberg grew up in Washington DC, in England and in Norway. His Norwegian-American family has a century-old family band, The Berntsons, which plays the traditional Norwegian folk music of his heritage.

As a young boy Karl learned first-hand from his mother, uncle and other family musicians the importance of music -- not only as art and cultural treasure, but as a unique form of communication. This early exposure to authentic roots music was instrumental in forming his eclectic outlook on music as a composer and musician.

Karl's career as a composer encompasses a wide variety of musical genres and styles, from world music to avant garde classical, jazz to rock, folk to symphonic. Similarly, there's an equally wide variety of mediums for which he has created music.

Throughout his experiences making records and touring the world as a CBS/Sony recording artist, serving as Composer-in-Residence for the Mark Taper Forum at the Los Angeles Music Center, or playing with his family at a Scandinavian folk music festival, Karl Lundeberg has always regarded all music as being connected. This firmly-grounded diversity of interests and unity of purpose fuels his passion for finding new and unique ways to express ideas and emotions through music.