Kaija Saariaho Overview

There are very few composers that are lucky enough to have their work described using the adjectives ‘luxurious’, ‘mysterious’, and ‘exuberant’, yet Kaija Saariaho’s work more than amply fulfils this objective. She is one of the best-known living composers working in... [more]

There are very few composers that are lucky enough to have their work described using the adjectives ‘luxurious’, ‘mysterious’, and ‘exuberant’, yet Kaija Saariaho’s work more than amply fulfils this objective. She is one of the best-known living composers working in the field of both electronic, acoustic music (and a combination of both), and has won numerous awards for her work. She was born in 1952, in Helsinki, Finland. She began her musical studies in Helsinki, and then moved to Freiburg where she studied with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber. It was during her studies and research at IRCAM in Paris that she began using electronics and live music in her compositional process. Her characteristic feel for nuanced textures and timbre are made manifold in such pieces as her chamber work Nymphéa (Jardin secret III) (1987), which is for string quartet, live electronics, and spoken text, as well as Petals (1988) for cello and electronics. Although chamber works comprise a great deal of her oeuvre, since the mid-nineties she has begun to demonstrate the need to express her ideas through larger forces and broader structures in operatic, oratorio and concerto forms. Her opera L’amour de loin was premiered at the 2000 Salzburg Festival, as well as the Sante Fe Opera in 2002, and the English National Opera in 2009. Her awards include the Grawemeyer Award in 2003 for L’amour de loin, and the Prix Ars Electronica in 1989 for Stilleben and Io. [show less]