Final concert of the composition workshop

The composition master class organised in conjunction with the Avant Summer Music Festival has long roots; when the first Summer Music Festival began in 1986, a group of young composers decided to gather at Sannäs Manor the very next summer. At that time, they were interested in computers, which offered new perspectives and possibilities for composing. Magnus Lindberg and Jouni Kaipainen were the long-term teachers of the course. Kaija Saariaho and Esa-Pekka Salonen also taught the course over the years. Today, the course is led by Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räisänen.

In addition to the teaching, an important part of the course is of course the concerts of the Suvisoito Composition Workshop, where well over two hundred first performances have already been given. The instrumentalists for the new works vary from year to year, and everything from a small baroque ensemble to a large orchestra has been heard. To add to the excitement, Jukka Tiensuu tends to give the students a special compositional task to apply to the new works. The topics have been more or less unusual, the idea being to offer composers a unique opportunity to write something they might otherwise never compose. The idea is to push composers out of their comfort zone: a method to learn something really new.

Let’s hear what this year’s participants have come up with!