Tarja Halonen recommends

Next Sunday 1st of December there will be a panel discussion at 2PM about equality in music with Wilhelm Kvist, Eriikka Maalismaa, Kaarina Hazard, Juha Ahonen and yours truly moderated by Robin Lindeberg. And at 3PM TampereRaw will play a wonderful concert at Camerata at Musiikkitalo with the same topic, including my first piano quintet "Minna - Pictures from the life of Minna Canth". Oh yeah and our former president Tarja Halonen (in the picture) recommends this concert, so I guess you should come and listen! 😏

Maria Itkonen, former president Tarja Halonen and me. Photo by Anna Angervo

New York debut!

It's Monday and a new exciting week is here; including two performances of my opera Djurens planet, in Oulu and Viitasaari and my first piece ever played in the USA! My friend Matti Pulkki will give my solo accordion piece "Shapes" it's US premiere on Tuesday at 7:30 PM at ASF + Scandinavia House! He is also going to give a lecture about writing for accordion (also including talking about "Shapes") at the Manhattan School of Music on Thursday! Friends in New York, hope you can go! I would if I could!

World premiere of "Requiem for our Earth" by Lyran

WHAT AN EVENING!

Yesterday my 30 minute piece "Requiem for our Earth" got its world premiere by Akademiska Damkören Lyran conducted by Jutta Seppinen, and what a world premiere it was! I had been stressed about this piece for ages because I definitely had gone way beyond my comfort zone: electronics, lights, moving choir, a new video projection by Marek Waldemar Pluciennik - so many things that potentially could go wrong - and everything went simply PERFECTLY! So happy and grateful to have the privilege to compose such a large scale work and get it performed by amazing performers to a sold out venue! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!

And getting so wonderful reviews by both HS – Helsingin Sanomat and Hbl - Hufvudstadsbladet makes me feel even more flabbergasted! "The highlight of the metropolitan area's concert season" Susanna Välimäki wrote and Wilhelm Kvist's heartwarming words "My instant impression is that the piece is the most important thing I have seen in a long time"!

THANK YOU!🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩