Pianist Martin Malmgren has made himself known as a versatile performer, equally at home on stage as a soloist, and chamber musician and Lied pianist. With an unusually wide repertoire ranging from early baroque up until the music of our times, he takes delight in surprising his audiences by performing unjustly neglected works and composers, in addition to the standard repertoire. Always aiming at finding meaningful connections between different composers, his concert programs typically show a thoughtful approach which builds bridges between different musical styles and periods. He is a founding member of the Agora Music Collective.

As a sought-after soloist, he has appeared with such orchestras as Sinfonia Lahti, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Belgrade Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Torun Philharmonic Orchestra, Oulu Sinfonia, Jyväskylä Sinfonia and others, in collaboration with conductors such as Petri Sakari, Ari Rasilainen, Anna Duczmal-Mróz, Dalia Stasevska, Eva Ollikainen, Giancarlo Rizzi and Ville Matvejeff. The interest in lesser-heard works has led to performances of unjustly neglected works with orchestra such as Prokofiev’s 5th piano concerto, Hindemith’s Kammermusik (‘Klavierkonzert’) op 36 nr 1, Schumann’s Konzertstück op 92 and Rachmaninoff’s 1st piano concerto. Among recent Finnish premiere performances given we find the late Elliott Carter’s “Dialogues 2”, Guillaume Connesson’s “Concertino” for piano and chamber orchestra, Bo Linde’s first Piano concerto and Doreen Carwithen’s Piano concerto.

In recent years, Martin has taken particular interest in the music of the forgotten Finnish-born composer Moses Pergament, which has resulted in numerous concerts focused on his music as well as a series of recordings, released by Toccata Classics. “Moses Pergament, Volume One: A Musical Miscellany” consists entirely of first recordings and was nominated for the Swedish Grammis award, including Pergament’s Piano Concerto (1951-52). “Volume Two: Songs”, recorded with soprano Tuuli Lindeberg, was released in February 2026. A third volume, feating the complete works for violin and piano together with violinist Sebastian Silén, is planned to be released in fall 2026, and a further two volumes are set for release in 2027.

In addition to his soloist career, Martin takes great interest in Lied and chamber music, and enjoys close collaborations with many well-known singers and instrumentalists. Among collaboration partners he has in recent years performed with cellists Erica Piccotti, Andreas Brantelid, Tomas Nuñez, Kristina Winiarski, Eeva Rysä, Saara Särkimäki, Daniel Schultz and Lauri Rantamoijanen, violinists Tobias Ringborg, Philip Zuckerman, Joonas Pekonen, Brusk Zanganeh, Elias Nyman, Sebastian Silén and Amalie Kjældgaard, violists Aida Hadzajlic, Jasmine Beams and Saara Kurkki, clarinetists Fatima Boix, Helmi Malmgren and Gil Shaked, singers Olga Heikkilä, Tuuli Lindeberg, Annaliisa Pillak and Ida Wallén, flutist Livia Schweizer and many others. Martin has often collaborated with contemporary music ensembles, and has premiered and commissioned a notable amount of music over the years. In 2025, he gave a world premiere of the late Paavo Heininen’s complete cycle of Etudes op. 104a.

Martin holds a Bachelor of Music from Edsberg Manor/Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, where he studied piano with Mats Widlund and chamber music with Mats Zetterqvist. He continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy, with Ilmo Ranta as his main piano teacher. Other important teachers have included Konstantin Bogino, Henri Barda, Jerome Lowenthal and Liisa Pohjola.