Czech Swedish cellist Mikael Ericsson comes from a musical family. He was born in Arvica in central Sweden. He began his music studies at the age of seven with a renowned Danish teacher, H. E. Deckert. Later he continued with great cellist prof. E. Blondal-Bengtson, first at a musical school of the Swedish Radio at the Edsberg Chateau near Stockholm, and later at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen.
In Copenhagen he participated in a master class led by the famous cellist G. Piatigorsky, and in Mont Orford, Canada, he studied with French cellist G. Fallot. From 1969 to 1972, he studied chamber music in Sweden and Poland with K. Lewin and J. Vlach. His friendship with J. Vlach brought him to Prague where he continued to study cello with J. Chuchro and chamber music with J. Vlach since 1972.
In 1978, Mikael Ericsson was finalist of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the first Swede ever. Two years later, he won the Prague Spring International Competition, in honour of A. Dvorak, and received the prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary Czech composition.
Mikael Ericsson has performed with almost all Czech orchestras as a soloist: Prague Symphony Orchestra, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, Janacek Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Czech Chamber Orchestra. He also performs regularly with orchestras in Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain. He toured Sweden with the Stockholm Radio Orchestra and Spain with the Czech Chamber Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as Blomsted, Khachaturian, Pe-ek, Vlach, Válek, Kukal, and excellent pianists Hála, Klánsk, Jando, Triendl, and Wiklund.
His extensive repertoire covers almost all works for the cello from Vivaldi to Schnittke, including solo compositions for cello, cello sonatas with piano, concertos for cello and other instruments accompanied by orchestra.
When J. Vlach was the leader of the Czech Chamber Orchestra, he invited Mikael Ericsson to join him in the ensemble. Until these days, Ericsson functions as a key player as well as soloist in this well-known orchestra.
Currently, he is a member of the Vlach Quartet Prague, the Czech Chamber Orchestra.
