Maria Kallionpää (Finland) - Markku Klami (Finland) - Aleksander Nowak (Poland)
Maria Kallionpää (b.1981 in Ulvila) is an internationally active composer and pianist who has her roots in Satakunta. Kallionpää graduated from Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences in 2006, from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2009, and in 2010 she completed a postgraduate composition course at the Univärsität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. She has also studied music technology and piano at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki as well as at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. Recently Kallionpää started working on a doctoral thesis on composition at the Oxford University. Her music has been performed at various festivals such as Musica Nova Helsinki, Time of Music in Viitasaari and at the Messian Festival in London. In January 2010, Hommage a Schumann-Zusammenbinden. Winden? – an electroacoustic piece for piano by Kallionpää – premiered at the Musikverein Hall in Vienna. She has participated in several mixed-art projects and performs regularly with the group PianoNow. www.fimic.fi/fimic/kallionpaa+maria
Markku Klami (b.1979 in Turku) graduated from the Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences in 2006 and completed a degree in composition at the Sibelius Academy in 2010. Klami has been awarded prizes in national composition contests in 2004 and in 2006, and his works have been performed at various festivals – among which are Musica Nova Helsinki, Summer Sounds in Porvoo, Time of Music in Viitasaari and Ung Nordisk Musik. At the moment Markku Klami is also the chair of young composers’ Ears Open Society. www.fimic.fi/fimic/klami+markku
Aleksander Nowak (b.1979 in Gliwice) is a versatile composer who emerged in the frontline of young Polish composers with Last Days of Wanda B – a composition for string orchestra which was nominated for the Opus Prize by the Polish National Broadcasting Company. Nowak graduated first from the Academy of Music in Katowice and then in 2008 completed a master’s degree in composition at Louisville University in The United States. Nowak works with both solo and symphony pieces. He has also composed music for audiovisual projects, of which the sailing documentary In Search of a Legend by Konstanty Kulik has been distributed internationally. Nowak’s music has been performed by a number of acclaimed artists and orchestras in Poland as well as in Ukraine, The United States and The United Kingdom. In spring 2010, his chamber opera Sudden Rain premiered at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. http://www.aleknowak.com/en/
Photos: jan Virtanen 2010
