Born 1964 in Boliden, Petter Sundkvist has rapidly achieved a leading position on the Swedish musical scene and is today among the most sought-after of young Swedish conductors. Having completed his training as a teacher of cello and trumpet at the Piteå College of Music, he studied conducting at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm under Kjell Ingebretsen and Jorma Panula.

After graduating in 1991 he also studied contemporary music with the Hungarian composer and conductor Peter Eötvös. He has created for himself a broad and eclectic range of repertoire and styles. He has conducted more than twenty productions at Swedish opera houses, and has also devoted himself to contemporary music and given over forty first performances of Nordic composers.

He has conducted all the Swedish orchestras and orchestras in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia and Slovakia, and from 1996 to 1998 was associate conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Until 2003 he was chief conductor of the Östgöta Wind Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In 2004 he was appointed chief conductor of the Musica Vitae chamber orchestra. His Naxos recordings of works by Stenhammar with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and of Kraus with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra have been much acclaimed in the international press, with the first Kraus release (8.553734) receiving the Cannes Classical Award.