28.3.2024
Dear Guest,
World Premiere times ahead! 😊
It's been a good while since my last jotting here, but fear not, I haven't been lounging about. Quite the contrary: this spring, I'm set to reap the rewards of my recent hard graft, with not one, not two, but three world premieres lined up in quick succession.
In February, I wrapped up work on a duo titled Biodegradable Kiss for flutes and percussion, to be premiered by Kaisa Kortelainen and Jerry Piipponen on May 12th at the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. One of the brilliant perks of tailor-making a piece for a musician I know is that even after it's done, I can still fine-tune it, and I've been going through several details with Jerry on this piece. As the title suggests, this composition ties into the environmental theme, following the footsteps of the string octet Swarm (2020), which delved into biodiversity loss. This time around, we're tackling pollution and the planet's gradual decline into uninhabitability.
And before that, mark your calendars for April 27th, when we'll witness the world premiere of "Capture I" at the Helsinki Music House. Accordion virtuoso Janne Valkeajoki and clarinettist Lauri Sallinen will be taking on this piece, which was completed in late 2021. Its premiere got delayed due to some unforeseen circumstances, but finally, it's happening, and I couldn't be more thrilled! These performers are top-notch musicians, so it's bound to be a real treat.
Last but certainly not least, make sure you don't miss the world premiere of my double violin concerto, A Sensuous Encounter in the Eastern Garden, on May 16th in Joensuu. The magnificent violinists Minna Pensola and Antti Tikkanen will take the stage in front of the Joensuu City Orchestra, under the baton of Andres Kaljuste. This concerto, spanning just over half an hour, is a multifaceted dive into the realm of instrument theatre. I can hardly imagine more suitable performers for it than Minna and Antti, who have truly been an endless source of inspiration for this piece.
The work doesn't stop here. Next up on the agenda, I'll be diving into the world of female choir music and delving into saxophone tunes infused with some electronic spice. But before all that, we've got a major milestone on the horizon. On September 28th in Helsinki, I'll be hosting a big-profile concert featuring a showcase of my recent works and some more world premieres performed by some of the finest musicians around. Stay tuned for more details – and thanks for joining me on this musical journey! 🙏🏼
14.12.2023
Dear Guest,
it’s been an autumn filled with work. Fortunately in the end, gratitude prevails: I finished the concerto for two violins and orchestra in November. It kept me busy for the major part of 2023, and is titled A Sensuous Encounter in the Eastern Garden. This “theatrical trip” for two solo violins was commissioned by and written for the smashing violin duo Minna Pensola and Antti Tikkanen, and the world premiere will be heard (and seen…) on the 16th of May 2024 in Joensuu City Orchestra’s concert, conducted by Andres Kaljuste. I can hardly wait!
Another task that has kept me busy is my upcoming album, which will be released next spring by the Austrian specialist contemporary music label KAIROS. Recording music, and art music in particular, is not a profitable business anymore, as very few people listen to physical CDs anymore. I hope as many listeners as possible will remember that using Spotify is to support an exploiter, and will buy the record instead.
Finally, I’ve started working on the new piece for flutes and percussion, that was commissioned by Kaisa Kortelainen and Jerry Piipponen, and will have its world premiere only days before the Sensuous Encounter, namely on 12th of May 2024 in Musiikkitalo, Helsinki. This is another superbly inspiring duo, and I’m looking forward to this event like a kid waiting for Christmas.
Which brings to mind: Merry Christmas everybody from the Land of the Santa Claus! Fröhliche Weihnachten aus dem Land des Weihnachtsmanns! 😊🎄
28.8.2023
Dear Guest,
check out two new videos of recent performances: Rajat for soprano and a trio of French horn, violin and piano, and Enchanted Forest for the Superpluck trio, consisting of guitar, kantele, harpsichord and electronics. You can find them at the Watch page.
18.8.2023
Dear Guest,
welcome back to my news page! New season has started with new projects and performances. This week I’ve attended the rehearsals of Zen, a diptych for soprano and a quartet consisting of flute, clarinet, violin and cello. The texts are written by Zen Seung Sahn (1927-2004) and Zen Dōgen (1200-53). I found them on the wall of the buddhist temple in Bois de Vincennes, Paris, in 2011. I immediately felt that those texts needed to be set into music, and so I wrote this piece. It was premiered in 2013 at the Nordic Music Days. Why is this work being rehearsed? Because it’s going to be recorded next week, by the quintet of Olga Heikkilä (soprano), Malla Vivolin (flute), Maria Puusaari (violin) and Markus Hohti (cello). It will appear on a new album of my music, due to be released next year.
Another exciting project is the Finnish premiere of Enchanted Forest for guitar, kantele, harpsichord and electronics – the work that the Superpluck trio (Rody van Gemert (gt), Eija Kankaanranta (kt), Assi Karttunen (hpd) commissioned and premiered in Okinawa, Japan, in last December. This work was supposed to have its Finnish premiere at the Musica nova festival in last March, but the performance fell through because of a hand injury. Luckily now everything is right, and the work will be heard for the first time in Europe tonight!
And one more happy Helsinki premiere will take place on the first of September, as the Helsinki Harp Festival has included the trio Corpi celesti for flute, viola and harp in its programme. The work was commissioned and premiered (2021) by the fantastic harpist Päivi Severeide, a champion of contemporary harp music. This time she will be joined by the violist Torsten Tiebout and the flutist Erica Nygård. Having already heard them rehearse the piece, I can safely say that it will be a fine performance of this work. By the way, the world premiere can be watched and listened to here!
Apart from attending performances and rehearsals, I’m in the middle of writing a concerto for two violins and orchestra on the commission of Minna Pensola and Antti Tikkanen. This is a large work and requires all my concentration now. The world premiere will take place next spring, and until then there’s a lot of hard work ahead. To follow this topic, either watch this space, or, if you haven’t clicked “follow” on my Facebook page yet, you can do it now, and get fresh news of my work regularly.
10.5.2023
Dear Guest,
not much more to say than that I’m really excited about the rest of May: on the 25th of this month my bass clarinet concerto Claroscuro will have its world premiere in Jena by Volker Hemken and the Jenaer Philharmonie, conducted by Eva Ollikainen. And the following week it’s my song cycle’s turn: Rajat will be heard for the first time at Musiikkitalo, Helsinki, in Olga Heikkilä’s concert.
This video tells a bit more about Claroscuro – enjoy!
12.4.2023
Dear Guest,
spring is coming, and as the days have got longer, the place in which I’m residing is now the brightest in the world! That brings to mind Brightwater (or Lichtwasser in German, its original Finnish title being Kirkasvetinen), the “trout quintet” that I wrote in 2018. It was commissioned by the pianist Silke Avenhaus, who wanted to have five short pieces, or “comments”, to accompany Franz Schubert’s timeless classic. Unlike the four other composers in the project, I didn’t use a theme from The Trout. I titled my piece after the only place where I’ve ever caught a rainbow trout, the lake Kirkasvetinen, which has exceptionally bright water (the Finnish name means exactly that). Each composer picked one instrument of the quintet, and gave a bigger role to it. My pick was the viola.
This project has in recent years appeared to be very popular, and Silke and her quintet have performed it before, after and even during the pandemic. There will be five more performances within near future, one in the Netherlands, three in Germany, and one in Finland, at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. One of the German performances (in Kleve) will be broadcast by the WDR3 channel.
You can listen to Kirkasvetinen here.
In between those performances there will be two events, which I’m really looking forward to. On the 25th of May the German Jenaer Philharmonie with conductor Eva Ollikainen will give the world premier performance to my concerto for bass clarinet, string orchestra and percussion at the Ernst-Abbe-Saal in Jena. The work was commissioned by and written for the bass clarinet wizard Volker Hemken, who holds the solo bass clarinet position at the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig. This work was finished in late 2019, and inevitably became a victim of the pandemic, that blew away all plans for its premiere. It is a great joy, that the world premiere will now finally take place!
Less than a week later, on the last of May, there’ll be another world premiere, when the soprano Olga Heikkilä and a trio of Jukka Harju (French horn), Maria Puusaari (violin) and Kirill Kozlovski (piano) will perform the song cycle Rajat at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. This cycle is a set of poems (in Finnish) by Riina Katajavuori, and written in 2021 with especially Olga’s fine voice in my mind.
Lots of interesting stuff is coming up. 😊 You can also follow me and my activities on my Facebook page.
31.1.2023
Dear Guest,
some memorable performances belong now to the past… The world premiere of Verve and its identical twin sister (look the same from distance, but when you learn to know them, they are easy to tell from each other) Swerve gave me a great pleasure. The performances went really well, and obviously the audience also liked the works, because the applause was overwhelming every time. The latter performance of Swerve was particularly pleasing, because the acoustics of the Kuusankoskitalo hall really did justice for the colours of the piece. I can only thank the conductor Tung-Chieh Chuang, who really embraced the music, as well as the Kymi Sinfonietta.
None of these performances, nor the concerts with the Concerto for French horn in Joensuu and Kuopio were reviewed in the local newspapers! I can’t say anything about the shameful state of art music journalism in Finland, because it appears it hardly even exists anymore. Unfortunately there aren’t many art music bloggers in Finland (I really know only about two, Jari Kallio’s Adventures in Music and Jari Hoffrén’s Elementori (in Finnish) – both are truly commendable), that would cover for the lack of newspaper music journalism.
It was a pity that I couldn’t attend the world premiere of Enchanted Forest in Japan, but luckily this work will get its Finnish premiere at the Musica nova festival in Helsinki on the 6th of March, and there’ll be another performance in May at the Superpluck club evening. I’m really looking forward to these, because combining electronics with live musicians is so fascinating. (EDIT: This performance had to be cancelled due to illness.)
And finally, another very pleasing thing is that the plan to write a new work for Kaisa Kortelainen and Jerry Piipponen will become reality. This super dynamic flute–percussion duo represents the new generation of top musicians, who knows no barriers, and isn’t afraid of anything in art music. The new work for them will be premiered in 2024, and is financed by the Sibelius Fund.
Lots of interesting things lie ahead… climb on the bandwagon! 👍🏼
28.11.2022
Dear Guest,
busy times! Concerts, travels, premieres, book fairs! I’m writing this in Jyväskylä, where I today attended the first rehearsal of my brand new orchestra overture Verve. The Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra seems to be ahead of the schedule, because they played so well from the word go. The conductor Ville Matvejeff has everything in his safe hands, so I’m really anticipating a fine world premiere later this week.
Verve is a joint commission by the Jyväskylä SO and Kymi Sinfonietta, who share the same line-up. However, JSO are having large symphonic brass in this concert, which means that I’ve written two versions of the work, one with four French horns, three trumpets, three trombones and the tuba, and one with just two French horns and two trumpets, and now lower brass. The smaller line-up version forced several differences especially in the middle section of the work, and became in the end so different from the original, that I decided to give it a different title as well: Swerve will be premiered by Kymi Sinfonietta in Kotka, Finland, on the 19th of January 2023, under the baton of Tung-Chieh Chuang.
I now consider these two works twin sisters. 🙂
Only three days after the premier of Verve, there’ll be another world premiere, when the Superpluck trio performs Enchanted Forest (Der Zauberwald / Miwaku no mori, 魅惑の森) at the Okinawa University on the 3rd of December. This is an exciting project, because there’s the electronic part included, and it is always a challenge to balance a non-human player with living musicians. No two venues are exactly the same either, and only few of them have exactly the same technical facilities. Despite this I’m confident that the Superpluck will give the work the fine premiere it deserves, because the group is made of experienced wizards of contemporary music. There’ll be another performance at the Aichi University two days later.
Unfortunately I can’t be present in Enchanted Forest’s premier, but luckily there’s an exciting performance ahead next week anyway, when Jukka Harju plays my French horn concerto again, this time with the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Atso Almila in Kuopio’s fantastic Music Centre hall on the 8th of December.
So, all in all it has been a busy November for me, and the world premiere of Swarm’s nonet version earlier this month in Rovaniemi with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra and conductor John Storgårds went really well, too. The concert can be listened to at YLE Areena. If you’re outside Finland, you might need a VPN to listen to it.
Luckily the rest of the year is going to be calmer, which is nice because Christmas is less than four weeks away. Have a nice end of the year everyone of you!
23.8.2022
Dear Guest,
Welcome to my News Page!
Phew! The past 12 months have been pretty eventful… Since picking the prestigious Finlandia Prize in nonfiction literature in December 2021, I have been invited to umpteen events to talk about the putative “difficulty” of contemporary music – which have been very, very nice indeed!
However, having gotten over the worst stages of the covid-19 pandemic, there have been a few important performances of my works, and there’s more to come. The world premiere of the ensemble piece Pragma at the Nuova consonanza festival in Rome, Italy, by the magnificent NED Ensemble was the start of a list of premieres – the pandemic did cause a backlog, and a few planned performances have been moved into future.
In July 2022, my third string quartet, titled Insolenza had its world premiere at the Our Festival in Järvenpää, Finland, where it was given two back-to-back performances by the outstanding Kamus Quartet. These gave me enormous pleasure, and the public dress rehearsal with an eagerly listening audience was the icing on the cake.
The coming autumn will bring new events and concerts: the violin-reciter piece (G)astronomia will have another performance and a radio broadcast at the Kaustinen Chamber Music Week. It was moved from last February due to covid restrictions, which punished the innocent victim (arts and culture events) heavily.
Another world premiere will take place in early November, when the Lapland Chamber Orchestra and the conductor John Storgårds will perform the nonet version of Swarm in Rovaniemi and Pudasjärvi. You can watch and listen to the octet version here.
What especially gladdens my heart is that the Concerto for French horn will twice return to programs: first with the Joensuu City Orchestra (conductor Maria Itkonen) and then with Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (conductor Atso Almila) in October and December respectively. The horn solo is played by the brilliant Jukka Harju.
Finally, there will be another world premiere on the last of November, when the Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert overture titled Verve, which is that orchestra’s joint commission with the Kymi Sinfonietta. The concert is conducted by Ville Matvejeff. This is also the piece of music that I am working on right at the moment, and blimey, do I look forward to this event!
Stay in touch, I’ll update this news page every now and then. If you want to be alerted of future news, leave a message via the contact page.
Yours, Osmo Tapio