Biography

Margareta Bengtson grew up in a family of musicians south of Stockholm.
She  started singing and playing the piano when she was very young. Later on  she started playing the harp, witch became her main instrument  at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

1984  she became a member of the vocal ensemble The Real Group. The Real Group have been touring around the world as a fulltime job since 1989 with great success. They have released many cd.s in different countries, they have got many awards for their work,  and have been collaborating with such different artists as for example Barbara Hendricks, Sir George Martin, swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson and choire Prof. Eric Ericson.

In 1997 Margareta  was given 1st price as “Best female soloist” by the Choral Acapella Society of America.

2000 The  Real Group got a Swedish grammyaward for the cd ” Commonly Unique.”

2002  The Real Group participated in the opening  of the World Championship of Football in Seoul, Southkorea.

2006  The Real Group made all the sounds with only voices for a  LG- mobile telephone in Southkorea.

Margareta has also worked as a freelance harpist and singer, often together with her brother, Jan Bengtson , who is alt. Principal flutist at the Royal Philharmonic orhestra in Stockholm. 
She has made many guest appearances on CDs with other artists. For several years she has enjoyed a close collaboration with the swedish composer and jazzpianist Nils Lindberg. 2008 he made a cd called ”As we are” featuring Margareta with music written  only by him.

At the end of 2006 Margareta left the Real Group to become a soloist. She made a jazz cd called ”I´m Oldfashioned” that got really good rewiews  in Sweden and Japan. 2007 she participated in many jazzfestivals, and did a succesful tour in Japan.

During 2008-09  she has worked  with many different bigbands, windorchestras, choires and also classical orchestras as well as small ensembles and jazzbands, touring around Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland and France. She has got the opportunity to work with some of Swedens finest musicians, such as Ove Lundin, Martin Sjöstedt, Peter Asplund, Jan Lundgren, Hans Backenroth, Jan Allan and Staffan Mårtensson. She has made many concerts  both in the jazzworld  and in the more classical field of music. At the end of 2009 Margareta released 2 new cd.s. One in Japan called ”Where the midnight sun never sets” with nice reviews, and one in Sweden called ”En gång i Stockholm”.

For the year of 2010 she will start focusing more on writing her own music and paint in oilcolours.