Uusinta Ensemble is a Grammy-winning Finnish chamber ensemble, focusing on contemporary music. Until 2013, the ensemble was known as "Uusinta Chamber Ensemble", or "Uusinta-kamariyhtye" in Finnish.
Uusinta Ensemble was started in 1998 by the composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä, and in the early years most of its members were composers, such as Max Savikangas, Riikka Talvitie, Kimmo Leppälä and Lauri Toivio. The ensemble has premiered a vast number of Finnish and Nordic composers' music. In recent years, Uusinta's repertoire has widened internationally, much as a result of the ensemble's co-operation with various organizations and festivals. Apart from its native Finland, Uusinta has performed in France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Estonia and the United States. Uusinta has premiered over one hundred works by composers of various nationalities. [1] Uusinta’s American debut in New York in April 2014 received very good reviews. [2] Uusinta Ensemble released its first album, at the edge of time, in 2004.
The ensemble’s current members belong to the most prominent Finnish musicians born in the 1970s and the 1980s. Inside the ensemble, there is an established string quartet, Uusinta String Quartet, which comprises the violinists Maria Puusaari and Aleksi Kotila, the violist Max Savikangas, and the cellist Pinja Nuñez. The artistic director of the Uusinta Ensemble is the composer Perttu Haapanen. [3]
Uusinta Ensemble has co-performed with among others the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the French Ensemble Aleph, the German ensemble adapter and the Spanish Ensemble Espai Sonor. [4]
During the season 2009–2010, Uusinta Ensemble was part of the EU funded re:new project, [5] which promoted European contemporary music in 11 countries. In 2009, Uusinta Ensemble celebrated its tenth season. The contemporary music concert series Klang, which started in Helsinki in 2011, was launched by the initiative of the Uusinta Ensemble members. [6]
Besides the ensemble, Uusinta also started the publishing house Uusinta Publishing Company Ltd. in 2000, but the two now work separately.
Together with the Helsinki Chamber Choir and the conductor Nils Schweckendiek, Uusinta won in 2024 both the ICMA prize and the Grammy award for "Best Choral Performance" for the album Reconnaissance, performing music of Kaija Saariaho. [7] [8] The same album won also the Finnish Emma Award for the best classical album of 2023. [9]
The music of Finland can be roughly divided into folk music, classical and contemporary art music, and contemporary popular music.
IRCAM is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organisationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The extension of the building was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Much of the institute is located underground, beneath the fountain to the east of the buildings.
Kaija Anneli Saariaho was a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the BBC, the New York Philharmonic, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Finnish National Opera, among others. In a 2019 composers' poll by BBC Music Magazine, Saariaho was ranked the greatest living composer.
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano. She is the recipient of several Grammy Awards and has released a number of Edison Award-winning discs; she performs both opera and art song, and her repertoire spans Baroque to contemporary. Many composers, including Henri Dutilleux, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Kaija Saariaho, have written for her. In 2007, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
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Anssi Karttunen is a Finnish cellist.
Jukka Santeri Tiensuu is a Finnish contemporary classical composer, harpsichordist, pianist and conductor.
Ondine is a Finnish classical record label founded in 1985 in Helsinki, Finland. Its catalogue with several award-winning releases includes over 600 titles with major Finnish and international artists.
Adriana Mater is the second opera by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, with a libretto in French by her frequent collaborator, Amin Maalouf. The Opéra National de Paris and the Finnish National Opera jointly commissioned the opera. It received its world premiere at the Opéra Bastille on 3 April 2006 in a production directed by Peter Sellars. The production was dedicated to Gerard Mortier, Artistic Director of the Paris Opera.
La Passion de Simone is an oratorio composed by Kaija Saariaho to a libretto in French by Amin Maalouf, first premiered in a staging by Peter Sellars. The work, subtitled "a musical journey in 15 stations", centers on the life and writings of Simone Weil and was conceived in the Passion Play tradition with episodes in her life linked to the Stations of the Cross. It is composed for SATB chorus, soprano soloist, spoken voice, orchestra and electronic instruments.
Tomi Räisänen is a Finnish composer.
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New European Ensemble is an ensemble, currently based in the Netherlands, that specializes in contemporary music.
Kirsten Soriano was born April 19, 1979. She is an American composer from White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Her music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet string quartet, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW Ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Crossing choral ensemble, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente and the Jack Quartet string quartet. In 2013, she was appointed assistant professor at the University of North Texas and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2020. She has served as director of undergraduate studies in the college of music at the University of North Texas since 2018.
Rock Painting was the first album of the Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä, released in 2006. The music on the album is performed by the Uusinta Chamber Ensemble. The album consists of seven works, written between 1997 and 2004.
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Korvat auki r.y. is a Finnish society, founded in 1977 to advocate and import contemporary music and whose work primarily focuses on younger composers. The founders include Kaija Saariaho, Jouni Kaipainen, Magnus Lindberg, Olli Kortekangas, Eero Hämeenniemi, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The society organizes concerts and seminars. Initiated by the society, two ensembles have been created to perform new music in Finland: Toimii and Zagros.
Juho Verneri Pohjola is a Finnish jazz trumpeter and composer.
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