Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho died at home in Paris on Friday at the age of 70, her family announced in a statement.
“We are devastated to announce that Kaija Saariaho passed away peacefully this Friday morning at her home, at home in Paris,” reads a statement signed by the songwriter’s husband, daughter and son.
Born in Helsinki in 1952, Kaija Saariaho has composed for various groups, from small ensembles to orchestras, including opera, theater music, dance and electro-acoustic music.
Kaija Saariaho was the composer in residence at Casa da Música, in Porto, in 2010, and returned to this institution in 2019 to give the Portuguese premiere of her work “Ciel d’hiver”, as part of the “Música no Feminino “. program.
“Lichtbogen”, “Graal théâtre”, “Laconisme de l’aile”, “L’aile du songe” are some of his pieces present in the repertoire of several Portuguese orchestras, such as the Gulbenkian, the Metropolitana de Lisboa, the Remix Ensemble and the Porto Symphony Orchestra, as well as Grupo Música Nova, by Cândido Lima, revealing the composer to the Portuguese public.
Among Saariaho’s works, the operas “Émile” and “L’Amour de loin”, both with a libretto by the writer Amin Maalouf, and both presented in Portugal, within the framework of the Gulbenkian Music Season, in Lisbon, in 2013, also and 2016, and at Casa da Música, in Porto (“Émile”).
In the 2014-2015 season, Kaija Saariaho accompanied the Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça in the international program Mestres Disciples.
The recording of “L’Amour de loin”, premiered at the 2000 Salzburg Festival by the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano, was honored with the 2011 Grammy Award.
In 2021, he won the Golden Lion for his career at the 65th edition of the International Festival of Contemporary Music, at the Venice Biennale, “for the extraordinary technical and expressive level he achieved in scores for choirs”.
At the time, the Venice Biennale emphasized that Kaija Saariaho is recognized not only for her original artwork for voice, but in particular for her 1999 composition “Oltra Mar”, “an absolute masterpiece” for chorus and orchestra, “harmonically complex, but of clear composition”, and influenced by Impressionism.
Source: DN
