Music & Space

A conversation with composers Kaija Saariaho and Juha T. Koskinen

Une rencontre et un dialogue entre Kaija Saariaho et le compositeur Juha T. Koskinen
La rencontre en anglais est suivie par la projection de l'Opéra L'Amour de Loin dans la salle de cinéma de l'Institut finlandais. 

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is the Festival Présences’s featured composer this year at Radio-France, and her former student and fellow countryman Juha T. Koskinen will have a major stage work performed in this framework alongside some of her music, on February 14th.

This is an opportunity for these two internationally acclaimed composers of new music, and especially opera, to join us at KOTI to catch up and discuss their latest creations.

In a conversation moderated by stage director Aleksi Barrière, and illustrated by musical examples, they will use our setting of Finnish cabins as an arena to address the problematics they face as composers dealing with space: how can something as public as music be intimate? Is there such a thing as a private musical space, and how do we let other people in? What new territories are yet to be discovered within the closed space of a concert hall, a theatre or headphones?

The hour-long discussion starting at 7 pm will be followed at 8 pm by a screening of Kaija Saariaho's opera L'Amour de loin.

Those willing to prepare for the discussion can watch two documentaries about Kaija Saariaho and her music that will be screened at the Institute on February 8th.

Free entrance