Juha T Koskinen

Juha T. Koskinen’s path to becoming a composer led from violin lessons given by his father at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he took composition as his main subject, studying under Kalevi Aho, Anders Eliasson, Paavo Heininen and Kaija Saariaho. He then continued his studies with Philippe Manoury, Gilbert Amy and Philippe Schoeller at the Conservatory of Lyon in France, followed by a one-year course of computer-generated music and composition at IRCAM, Paris. His piece Eclysis for chamber orchestra received the second prize at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in 1995 and Sogni di Dante for seven musicians won the 2004 Takefu International Composition Award in Japan. Currently he is writing a symphony for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, and an opera Madame de Sade for Ooppera Skaala opera company in Helsinki. Juha was chairman of the Ears Open! Society between 1994-95 and has been composer-in–residence at the Huittinen Music Institute since 2004. To date he has already composed five operas and over forty works, ranging from solo pieces to concertos and choral music. His current shift towards orchestral and chamber music reflects the wide interest he has in tonal possibilities and timbre, while the form of his music generally takes its own shape through the process of allowing ideas to dictate their own natural development. Koskinen’s music is largely written in the light of powerful subject matter or texts which offer compelling stimulation. At the same time, his idiomatic compositions show a close relationship between his awareness of style and the nature of each individual instrument.

Il Messo celeste (2003) was performed during the 2006 AFNOM festival in London.

Contact information

Juha T. Koskinen
Email: jkoski48@welho.com
www.fimic.fi/koskinenjuha t.