Margareta Bengtson(formerly Margareta Jalkéus, having married and divorced Anders Jalkeus) is the former soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 of The Real Group

The Real Group

The Real Group is a professional a cappella group from Sweden, consisting of five members: Emma Nilsdotter, Katarina Henryson, Anders Edenroth, Morten Vinther Sørensen, and Anders Jalkéus....

, a professional a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 vocal jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 quintet from Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. She sang with the group for over twenty years and has recently announced her departure from the world-renowned ensemble.

History and Education

Bengtson comes from a very musical family. Her mother taught voice for many years and her father, now retired, was once the principal flautist

Flautist

A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...

 in the Royal Swedish Opera's orchestra.

At age ten, she began studies at Adolf Fredrik's School of Music in Stockholm, where she attended for ten years. She began playing the harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

 at 12.

In 1984, she entered the solo-harp class at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she studied for 5 years. The same year she became a member of the vocal ensemble The Real Group. In 1987 the group was offered a course of advanced study at the college and this continued until 1989, when they gave three diploma concerts in Stockholm. The Real Group has been a professional ensemble since then.http://www.margaretabengtson.com/bio_uk.html

Release of first Solo Album

On October 25, 2006, Bengtson released her first solo jazz album entitled "I'm Old Fashioned" with EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

. For her first solo project, Bengtson has recorded ten American jazz standard

Jazz standard

Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...

s. All arrangements of which are attributed to members of the band, who all are from Sweden as well. Pål Svenre is the producer. http://www.margaretabengtson.com/news_uk.html