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This is how it started

When Octava was founded in 1989, the choir began as a double quartet. To take on works requiring a larger number of chorists, they would bring in additional singers every couple of years and perform under the name Octava Grande. In 2000, Octava expanded its permanent ensemble to nine singers, and eventually ten, before gradually growing into a choir of twenty members.

In 2016, conductor Maria Sjöstedt Björs took over the ensemble, and today Octava has flourished into a chamber choir of around thirty singers. The choir continues to evolve, embracing works by both well-known and emerging composers.

Henry Åkerlund (born 1940), originally from Lillkorsträsk in the municipality of Älvsbyn, Norrbotten, was one of the founders of Octava in 1989. At that time, the ensemble was a double quartet without a conductor, but before long Henry became both their director and artistic leader. He led Octava until 2016.

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