The Swedish trumpet-player Niklas Eklund, born in Göteborg (Gothenburg) in 1969, trained at the School of Music and Musicology of Göteborg University. Further studies took place under the tutelage of Edward H. Tarr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. After five years as solo trumpet with the Basle Radio Symphony Orchestra, he left the orchestra in the autumn of 1996 to further his career as a soloist. Since then he has appeared with leading ensembles and conductors such as Zubin Metha, John Eliot Gardiner, Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Robert King, Eric Ericson, Reinhard Goebel, Gustav Leonhardt, the London Baroque, the Bach Ensemble (New York), the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and the English Baroque Soloists. In 1996 he was the first-prize winner of the first Altenburg International Baroque Trumpet Competition, in Bad Säckingen. He participated in Sir John Eliot Gardner’s Bach Pilgrimage performances and recordings in 2000, appearing in concerts throughout the world.

For Naxos, Niklas Eklund has recorded a magnificent five volume overview of the Baroque trumpet (8.553531, 8.553593, 8.553735, 8.554375 and 8.555099), embracing composers as diverse as Handel, Torelli, Sweelinck, Vivaldi, Haydn and Molter. He has also recorded for Naxos concertos by Haydn and Hummel on modern trumpet (8.554806). He plays the trumpet solo in the second Brandenburg Concerto.