Kaija Saariaho

Was born in Finland in 1952. She settled in Paris at the age of thirty, and has been living there since. She studied composition with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and later at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber (diploma in 1983). In 1982 she attended courses in computer music at ircam in Paris, since when the computer has been an important element of her composing technique. Her honours include the Kranichsteiner Preis at the Darmstadt Courses (1986), the Prix Italia (1988, for Stilleben), and the Ars Electronica Prize (1989, for Stilleben and lo). She has received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and ircam for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and has written pieces for Gidon Kremer (premiered at the 1995 bbc Proms) and for Dawn Upshaw. She has also taken part in a number of multimedia productions such as the full-length ballet Maa (1991) and a pan-European collaborative project to produce a cd-rom Prisma about her work. Saariaho1s song cycle Lonh for soprano and electronics was awarded the Nordic Music Prize in 2000.

Selected works: Forty Heartbeats for orchestra (1998), Neiges for eight cellos (1998), Cendres for alto flute, cello and piano (1998), Oltra mar (Across the Sea), seven preludes for the new millennium, for mixed choir and orchestra (1998­1999), Du cristal for alto flute, cello, synthesizer and symphony orchestra (1990), Maa, ballet music for flute, harpsichord, percussion, harp, violin, viola, cello and live electronics (1991), Unien kieliopista (From the Grammar of Dreams), stage music for two sopranos, flute, viola, cello and harp (1986­2000), L1Amour de loin (Life from Afar), opera in 5 acts to a libretto by Amin Maalouf according to La vida breve by Jaufré Rudel, one of the first troubadours of the 12th century (1999­2000), Song for Betty (2001; arrangement of the last part of L1Amour de loin), Cinq reflets de l1Amour de loin for soprano, baritone and orchestra (2001), Orion for orchestra (2002).

Cendres
I found the basis of the musical material for this piece in my double concerto ...a la fumée for alto flute, cello and orchestra. The name of the piece also derives from this. While writing Cendres, I was mainly concentrating on the interpretation of particular musical ideas by the three different instruments of the trio, each of which has its unique character and palette of colours. Musical tension is created and regulated by sometimes bringing the instruments as close together as possible in all ways (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, colour etc.), or, at the other extreme, letting each of them express the music in their most idiomatic fashion. Between these two extremes there is an unlimited number of possible ways to create more or less homogenous musical situations. The consciousness of this variety was the rope on which I was balancing whilst working on the piece. Cendres was commissioned by the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Ruhr and Kulturbüro der Stadt Essen for the Wolpe Trio.
Kaija Saariaho