Hugo Emil Alfvén - 1 May 1872 – 8 May 1960 was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.

He was born in Stockholm and studied at the Royal College of Music from 1887 to 1891 with the violin as his main instrument he also took private composition lessons At the same time he played the violin at the Royal Opera in Stockholm 1890-1892.

In 1897 he travelled much of the next ten years in Europe. He studied violin technique in Brussels and learned conducting in Dresden. In 1903-4 he was formally professor of composition at the Royal Conservatory, Stockholm. From 1910 he was  music director at the Universityof Uppsala (a post he held until 1939). There he also directed the male voice choir  until 1947.

He conducted in festivals at Uppsala (1911), Dortmund (1912), Stuttgart (1913), Gothenburg (1915), and Copenhagen (1918–1919). He toured Europe as a conductor throughout his life. He received a Ph.D.  from Uppsala in 1917 and became a member of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 1908. Alfvén recorded some of his orchestral music in stereo late in 1954 (the first classical stereo recordings made in Sweden), the recordings were issued on LP in the U.S. by Westminster Records.  A three-CD collection of Alfvén's recordings as a conductor has been issued.

Alfvén became known as one of Sweden's principal composers of his time. His music is in a late  Romantic idiom. His orchestrations are described as skilful and colourful, reminiscent of that of Richard Strauss. Like Strauss, Alfvén wrote a considerable amount of program music. Some of Alfvén's music evokes the landscape of Sweden.

Among his works are a large number of pieces for male voice choir, five symphonies and three orchestral "Swedish Rhapsodies." The first of these rhapsodies is his best known piece.