Arnold Östman

Arnold Östman was awarded the newspaper Expressen's Spelmannen in 1974. He was awarded an honorary doctorate at Umeå University in 1979 and he is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He was awarded the Litteris et Artibus 1990 and was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music May 14, 1992. In 2010 he was awarded the H. M. The King's Medal, "for significant contributions to Swedish music".

He was made artistic director of the Drottningholm Palace Theatre in 1980 and remained in that role until 1992. He gained an international reputation as a champion of the period performance movement in classical music, a movement that insists on the performance of repertoire from c. 1600 to 1820 (i.e., baroque, classical, and early romantic) using instruments (or modern replicas), techniques, and stylistic sensibilities from the appropriate period. In particular, Drottningholm's productions of Mozart operas with period instruments caused a considerable stir in the early days of the historical-performance movement. To Östman, use of historically appropriate instruments is vital to developing an understanding of the Mozartian style:

Östman was artistic director and conductor of the Vadstena Academy from 1971 until 1981, while also serving as conductor and artistic director of the NorrlandsOperan in Umeå from 1974 until 1978.

Östman was a teacher at the Operahögskolan i Stockholm (then called the Statens musikdramatiska skola) in 1969. He was theatre and museum director at the Drottningholms Teatermuseum (later known as Sveriges Teatermuseum) in Stockholm starting in 1979.

Arnold Östman (born December 24, 1939) is a Swedish conductor and music director.