Kaija Saariaho
1952 - 2023
Finnish
Summary
Kaija Saariaho was a prominent member of a group of Finnish composers and performers whose music is making a worldwide impact. She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she lived from 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures were often created by combining live music and electronics.
Although much of her catalogue comprises chamber works, from the mid-nineties she turned increasingly to larger forces and broader structures, such as the operas L’Amour de loin, Adriana Mater and Emilie. Around the operas there have been other vocal works, notably the ravishing Château de l’âme (1996), Oltra mar (1999), Quatre instants (2002), and True Fire (2014). The oratorio La Passion de Simone, portraying the life and death of the philosopher Simone Weil, formed part of Sellars’s international festival ‘New Crowned Hope’ in 2006/07. The chamber version of the oratorio was premiered by La Chambre aux echos at the Bratislava Melos Ethos Festival in 2013.
Saariaho claimed the major composing awards in The Grawemeyer Award, The Wihuri Prize, The Nemmers Prize,The Sonning Prize, The Polar Music Prize. In 2018 she was honoured with the BBVA Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge Award. In 2015 she was the judge of the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award. Always keen on strong educational programmes, Kaija Saariaho was the music mentor of the 2014-15 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and was in residence at U.C. Berkeley Music Department in 2015.
Only The Sound Remains, her most recent opera collaboration with Peter Sellars, was premiered in Amsterdam in 2016. In the same year her first opera L'Amour de loin was presented in its New York premiere by the Metropolitan Opera in a new production by Robert Le Page. The Park Avenue Armory and New York Philharmonic presented a celebration of her orchestral music with visual accompaniment.
February 2017 saw Paris come alive with her work when she was featured composer of Radio France's Festival Présences.
Her last opera, Innocence, received its world premiere at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in July 2021.
Critical Acclaim
It is rare when a new work sounds completely convincing and lucid at first hearing; thanks to Saraste and Karttunen, that was the case with Notes on Light. — The Boston Herald
Terra Memoria, a masterful new 15-minute string quartet by Finnish-born Kaija Saariaho. She is, quite simply, one of the most original compositional voices of our time. — Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post
Her elemental idea, which can be found in dozens of her scores, is an oceanic expanse of sound, one that shifts before one’s ears and quivers with hidden life. Saariaho’s work...moves between extremes of pure tone and noise, often finding a cryptic beauty in the middle zone. — Alex Ross, The New Yorker
The Composer of the Year 2021. Kaija Saariaho, who has long conjured otherworldly sounds with the spirit of an explorer returning to share her discoveries, reached new heights of mastery with two of 2021’s most memorable premieres: the opera Innocence and the symphonic Vista. — Joshua Barone, New York Times
Biography
Kaija Saariaho was a composer of great integrity and skill whose music reached a global audience. She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and in Paris, where she lived from 1982. Her Finnish background and research at IRCAM were a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures were often created by combining live music and electronics.
With an impressive catalogue of chamber music, often written for friends and professional colleagues, from the mid-nineties she turned increasingly to larger forces and broader structures: the operas L’Amour de loin (2000) and Adriana Mater (2005) created with librettist Amin Maalouf and director Peter Sellars were both commissioned by Gerard Mortier for Salzburg Festival and Opera de Paris respectively; the monodrama Emilie (2008) for Karita Mattila and Lyon Opera directed by Francois Girard brought about a third collaboration with Maalouf; Only the Sound Remains (2015) explores Japanese Noh plays in translation by Ezra Pound, directed by Peter Sellars.
Her latest opera Innocence (2018) commissioned by friend and collaborator Pierre Audi and directed by Simon Stone for the Aix-en-Provence Festival was created in collaboration with librettist Solfi Oksanen and dramaturg and translator Aleksi Barrière. Innocence is partnered by Finnish National Opera, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Dutch National Opera and San Francisco Opera, and continues to be celebrated around the world. Study for Life (1980), her very first stage work was eventually premiered some 40 years after writing it by La Chambre aux échos at the Helsinki Festival in 2022.
Vocal music was always a focal point of her creative space and Saariaho composed several works in this vein for the concert hall such as the ravishing Château de l’âme (1996), Oltra mar for chorus and orchestra celebrating the Millennium with New York Philharmonic (1999), Quatre instants for Karita Mattila (2002), True Fire for Gerald Finley (2014); Leino Songs (2017) and Saarikoski Songs (2020) for Anu Komsi. Simone Weil, the French philosopher, mystic and political activist, inspired the oratorio La Passion de Simone (2006/07).
Saariaho’s catalogue includes many concerti; L’aile du songe (2001) and Notes on Light (2006) for lifelong friends – the flautist Camilla Hoitenga and cellist Anssi Karttunen; D'OM LE VRAI SENS (2010) for clarinettist Kari Krikku; Maan varjot (2013) for organist Olivier Latry; Trans (2015) for harpist Xavier de Maistre; and her last work HUSH (2023) for Finnish jazz trumpet legend Verneri Pohjola.
A master of orchestration and structure Saariaho’s orchestral catalogue provides rich and rewarding music. From the early Du cristal (1989) and Verblendungen (1994) via Orion (2002) and Circle Map (2012) to the most recent work Vista (2019) Saariaho's music delights and challenges the ear with sparkling textures and often inventive use of sound design and electronics. Her music is championed by conductors the word over among them Susanna Mälkki, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Storgårds, Dalia Stasevska, Ernest Izquierdo-Martinez, and recently her daughter Aliisa Neige Barrière.
The music of Kaija Saariaho is published exclusively by Chester Music and Edition Wilhelm Hansen, part of Wise Music Group.
The archive of Kaija Saariaho’s work/music is housed at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. Please turn to them with research requests: https://www.paul-sacher-stiftung.ch/en/home.html.
Click here to read a personal account about the flute music of Kaija Saariaho written by celebrated flutist Camilla Hoitenga
Kaija Saariaho on WQXR's Meet the Composer
News
Performances
21st March 2024
- PERFORMERS
- ensemble XXI. jahrhundert
- CONDUCTOR
- Ivan Buffa
- LOCATION
- Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria
23rd March 2024
- PERFORMERS
- Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
- CONDUCTOR
- Tarmo Peltokoski
- LOCATION
- Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany
24th March 2024
- PERFORMERS
- Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
- CONDUCTOR
- Tarmo Peltokoski
- LOCATION
- Bozar, Brussel, Belgium
24th March 2024
- SOLOISTS
- Rachel Schutz Jean Bernard Cerin
- PERFORMERS
- Ensemble X
- CONDUCTOR
- Timothy Weiss
- LOCATION
- Barnes Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
28th March 2024
- SOLOISTS
- Roxane Choux, sporano
- PERFORMERS
- Musikkollegium Winterthur; The Zurich Chamber Singers
- CONDUCTOR
- Joana Carneiro
- LOCATION
- Stadthaus, Winterthur, Switzerland
Features
- Kaija Saariaho’s Poetic Montages
- From the very beginning of her career as a composer, Kaija Saariaho has turned to poetry as a material and inspiration for her music. The forms and logics of poetry have played a defining role in her output since then.
- Explore music by women for dance
- In response to requests from choreographers, dance and ballet companies we invite you to explore music in multiple styles and genres by women at the height of their composing game. From Missy Mazzoli, Maja Ratkje and Helen Grime, to Joan Tower, Kaija Saariaho, Gloria Coates and the new generation Hania Rani and Lisa Morgenstern, we are sure there’s something for everyone in this first in a series of specially curated features.
- Kaija Saariaho: Archive
- Explore the life and work of the late composer Kaija Saariaho, whose prolific five-decade career brought rich and rewarding music to a global audience. From orchestral, chamber and choral repertoire through to her operas, Saariaho truly was a master of the musical form.
- Operas by Kaija Saariaho
- Innocence — a vast drama for soloists, choir and orchestra— is a contemporary tragedy made radiant through its powerful music and the intermingling of words from different languages. One of six operas by Kaija Saariaho to explore.
- The Best Recordings of 2023 from Wise Music Classical
- Wise Music Classical invites you to enjoy a selection of the best recordings of 2023, featuring composers from across our international family of publishing houses.