Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Saariaho ( born October 14, 1952 in Helsinki) is a Finnish composer.

Life and work

Saariaho studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in the avant-garde Paavo Heininen and founded with Magnus Lindberg and others, the group Open Ears. She continued her education then in Freiburg with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber continued, attended the Darmstadt summer courses and studied from 1982 at IRCAM at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where she was still living in 2010, computer -assisted composition and working with the tape and live electronics.

It originated compositions such as delusions (1984 ), an interplay between orchestra and tape, and you Cristal (1989) and ... à la Fumée (1990 ) using live electronics. Under the influence of the spectra lists, a French group of composers whose compositions are based on the computer analysis of the sound spectrum of individual notes on various instruments to Saariaho turned to a style that is characterized by long sustained bass notes and the use of microtonal intervals. In this style, she composed her most famous work, Graal théâtre for Violin and Orchestra ( 1994-97 ).

Saariaho's works have been performed at international festivals in London ( 1989), Jakarta (1989 ), Paris ( 1989, 1991 ) and Vienna ( 1993) listed. She received the Kranichsteiner Music Prize of the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the 1988 Prix Italia for Still Life, 1989 Ars Electronica Prize for Still Life and Io and 2000 the Music Prize of the Nordic Council for Lonh and together with Michael Daugherty the Stoeger Prize 1986. 1999 Kurt Masur conducting the New York Philharmonic their composition Oltra mar for chorus and orchestra.

At the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Kent Nagano in 2000 with great success her first opera L' Amour de loin ( with a libretto by Amin Maalouf, according to the biography of the Troubadours Jaufré La Vida Breve pack ). 2006 was the premiere of her opera Adriana Mater at the Opéra Bastille place in Paris. 2010 premiered in Lyon Saariaho's third opera Émilie. The libretto for this Einpersonenoper wrote again Amin Maalouf, conductor Kazushi Ono was.

For L' Amour de loin Saariaho was awarded the Grawemeyer Award for Music. In January 2009, Saariaho has been with the Heidelberg Artists prize of 5,000 euros, excellent. Invited by Walter Fink, she appeared in the annual composer's portrait of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2010, the second woman to Sofia Gubaidulina. In Metternich hall of Schloss Johannisberg rang out among other Sept Papillons for solo cello (2000), played by Anssi Karttunen, and Quatre Instants for soprano and piano (2002) with Pia friend and David Lively. In 2011 she was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. 2011, the recording of her opera L' Amour de loin by the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin and the Berlin Radio Choir under the direction of Kent Nagano the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording category was awarded. In May 2013 Saariaho was awarded jointly with Youssou N'Dour with the Polar Music Prize.