Erik Valdemar Bergman (24 November 1911 – 24 April 2006) was acomposer ofclassical music fromFinland.

Bergman's style ranged widely, fromRomanticism in his early works (many of which he later prohibited from being performed) tomodernism andprimitivism, among other genres. He won theNordic Council Music Prize in 1994 for his operaDet sjungande trädet.^[1]

Bergman was born inNykarleby. He studied at theSibelius Academy inHelsinki and afterwards with Heinz Tiessen inBerlin and withWladimir Vogel inAscona. Since 1963 he taught composition at the Sibelius Academy, besides working until 1978 as a choir conductor. Bergman is considered a pioneer of modern music in Finland. Because of his training he was considered as a representative of the avant-garde; he developed for example thetwelve-tone techniques ofArnold Schoenberg learned from Wladimir Vogel. He composed song cycles, cantatas, pieces for piano and for organ, a guitar suite, a chamber concert for flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion and piano and further chamber works. HisRequiem for a dead poet (1970) andColori ed improvvisazioni for orchestra (1973) gave him international recognition. He is also known for his extensive choral output. His later works include concertos for cello, violin and trumpet.

He died inHelsinki, and is buried in theHietaniemi Cemetery^[2]

• Shpinitskaya, Julia (2016).A Theory of Multicultural Texts: The Music of Erik Bergman As a Phenomenon of Multicultural Europe. Acta Semiotica Fennica, XLIX. Ph.D. thesis. University of Helsinki.ISBN 978-951-51-2422-7.ISSN 1235-497X.

• Finnish Music Information Centre article on Erik Bergman (checked 23 September 2016).
• Fennica Gehrman's Bergman page with a complete opus list of his works (publisher).
• Obituary of Erik Bergman inThe Independent.

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