Mattias Nilsson was born in the South of Sweden in 1980. He started to play the piano at the age of 4 making his first public apperance at the age of 8 when accompanying the famous Swedish operetta singer Sonja Stjernquist.
As a child he was always surrounded by the music his father loved, especially jazz and classical music. At an early age Mattias was given classical piano lessons from his father, who soon found out that Mattias wanted to improvise instead of playing what was written.
Mattias went on to study the Afro-American music and tradition in different folk high schools (Härnösand, Bollnäs and Fridhem) in Sweden before starting to freelance with different groups as well as different musical styles, ranging from jazz, blues, gospel and latin, to rock and pop.
They wise decision to turn down an offer from the Malmö Academy of Music in 2004, choosing to go his own way, and learn from experience, led to the start of an intense freelance career which at this date concludes more than two thousands concerts in 34 countries around the world on stages such as L'Olympia, London Palladium, Auditorio Alfredo Kraus, Sala Palatului, Birmingham Symphony Hall and festivals like Varna Summer International Jazz Festival, Jazzaldia, Jazz San Javier, Copenhagen Jazz festival, Fest Jazza Koprivnica, Taichung Jazz Festival, Gouvy Jazz & Blues Festival, Akbank Jazz Festival and many more.
“Nilsson is more than just an extraordinarily talent… a composer and piano soloist at world-class level… a style that's very much his own: warm, sensible, empathetic and lyrical.” – LIRA (Sweden)
Nilsson’s stunning solo debut album Dreams Of Belonging released in Sweden in 2016 represents the culmination of a long journey for Nilsson, and the discovery of an individual voice, combined with a deep-seated love for the music of his homeland features eight Swedish folk songs, hymns, more modern pieces and three original Nilsson compositions, plus a ‘classic’ John Hartford cover. The album received a lot of praise in the Swedish and international press and was followed by an
