Leo Svensson Sander is a Stockholm-based cellist and composer working across improvised music, pop, folk, and contemporary performance. Born in 1975 in Skåne, Sweden, he began in classical music before moving toward a broader musical landscape, with Scandinavian folk music becoming an early and lasting source of inspiration.
Out of this shift grew the avant-pop band The Tiny, which for many years served as his main creative hub. His practice has since expanded into a wide range of collaborations and contexts, spanning concert music, experimental projects, and interdisciplinary work. In 2019, he began an ongoing collaboration with harpist Stina Hellberg Agback, forming the duo Namna.
Alongside his work as a performer, Svensson Sander is an active composer for film, theatre, and dance. He has contributed to numerous albums and film scores, and regularly creates music for stage productions. His collaborators and ensembles include Time Is a Blind Guide, Tropiques, Skogen, Namna, Fire! Orchestra, Goran Kajfes, Lena Willemark, and the Matti Bye Ensemble.
He studied cello at the Royal Danish Academy of Music (1994–1995) and at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg (1995–2001), and later completed studies in film music composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (2021–2023).
His recent work for stage and film includes Vanmakt (2026, Dramaten, directed by Malin Stenberg), La belle année (2026, feature documentary by Angelica Ruffier), Jim och piraterna Blom (2025, Helsingborg City Theatre), Riket (2024), Fruktansvärda fantasier (2023, Unga Dramaten), and the short film Vidunder (2023). He has also created music for dance works such as Dansa med hästar (2022) and several collaborations with choreographer Tove Sahlin/Shake it Collaborations.
As a musician, Svensson Sander has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, the United States, and Brazil. His work can be heard on a wide range of recordings, including releases with Time Is a Blind Guide, Goran Kajfes Tropiques, Fire! Orchestra, and his duo Namna, as well as collaborations with artists such as Anna Ternheim, Nils Berg, and Lena Willemark.
