Epitaph Premiere!

Very happy with pianist Ville Hautakangas’ world premiere of my new piano solo piece Epitaph!

The premiere took place in Tampere Hall in the Small Auditorium. Before the concert composers Tuomas Turriago, Ilari Laakso and I, as well the star of the evening, Ville Hautakangas, were all interviewed by concert producer Suvi Leinonen at a pretalk session. We talked about our inspirations for our pieces, about how we compose, and our upcoming projects. The pretalk was well attended.

Pretalk at Tampere Hall. Suvi Leinonen, Ville Hautakangas, me and Ilari Laakso.
Photo by Lea Antola.

This was the program note for Epitaph:

Epitaph for piano solo is written for Ville Hautakangas and to commemorate our friend Jouni Kaipainen. Jouni was a particularly positive and intelligent personality. If you ever met Jouni and had the chance to talk with him, you won’t forget him. He was a very quick-witted man, and his knowledge didn’t only encompass music, but almost everything in this world, and it was so immense that you couldn't help but admire it. But this didn’t ever make Jouni snuffy, rather the contrary. He encouraged both young aspiring musicians and composers as well as colleagues more warm heartedly and genuinely than anyone else I know. His passing away one day before his birthday was a shock to me - the in my eyes, immortal Jouni was suddenly gone. He is not only missed as a prominent role model of Finnish cultural life, but above all as a friend.

The concert consisted of four world premieres;

Epitaph by Cecilia Damström

Häivä by Ilari Laakso

Somber by Tuomas Turriago

Inner by Matilda Seppälä

The concert was short and stylish, and very well attended. Light designer Ville Syrjä had made a separate light setting for each piece, which made up a beautiful entity.

Ville Hautakangas premiering my piece Epitaph at Tampere Hall 6.3.2019

It was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces in the audience, and so many people who also knew Jouni personally. The composition students from my former University TAMK as well as my former professor Doctor Hannu Pohjannoro were there along with other former study colleagues. Also the musicians from the ensemble Tampere Raw (who are also musicians in Tampere Philharmonic) were there, which was great.

We ended the lovely evening with delicious food and wine at the Tampere Hall restaurant Tuhto.

Tuomas Turriago, Ville Hautakangas and me after the concert 6.3.2019.
Photo by Lea Antola

Very much looking forward to share with you the video and sound recording by Tero Koski.