Bo Nilsson (born 1 May 1937 in Skellefteå), is a Swedish composer and lyricist.
Bo Nilsson first drew notice as a composer at the age of 18 when his "Zwei Stücke" were performed in a 1956 West German Radio “Musik der Zeit” concert in Cologne. He had taught himself composition by listening to the radio, having previously had only basic training from a local music teacher and some experience as a jazz pianist. Though his early style owes much to Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, it also displays a number of personal features: the use of bright percussion sounds behind finely wrought vocal or flute (usually alto flute) lines, a “nervous” fluttering of tonal nuances, and a feeling for miniature, calculated forms (Åstrand 2001). Because he has chosen to live in the small town of Malmberget, he received the journalistic epitethet "the genius from Malmberget".
Beginning with Entrée for orchestra and tape (1962), Nilsson turned to a style akin to late Romanticism, and later in the 1960s he wrote film and television scores, for example Hemsöborna (1966) and Röda Rummet.
Amongst his most important works are Quantitäten for solo piano (1957), Ett blocks timme for soprano and chamber ensemble after a text by Öyvind Fahlström, Brief an Gösta Oswald (1958–62), Drei Szenen for orchestra, and Fatumeh for reciter, choir, rock-group, and symphony orchestra (1971).
Bo Nilsson received an honorary doctorate from the Luleå tekniska universitet. On this occasion, the University commissioned a portrait of Bo Nilsson, painted by artist Echi Åberg.