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| Kimmo Hakola |
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Biography
Kimmo Hakola (born 27 July 1958) studied at the Sibelius Academy under Einojuhani Rautavaara and Eero Hämeenniemi. He won the Unesco Composers' Rostrum twice: in 1987 with his String Quartet and in 1991 with his Capriole for cello and clarinet. Hakola's music has been performed at several major music events and festivals, and portrait concerts of his works have been held in Los Angeles (Monday Evening Concerts) and New York (Miller Theatre, Broadway).
Hakola’s works usually attract exceptional interest. He is a creator of intense musical dramas that recognize no stylistic or expressive limits. His music is a combination of exciting dramatic power and exceptional musical quality. Musicianship is manifest in all his achievements resulting in communicativeness and richness of sound that speak of the composer's delight at discovering his very own idiom.
Hakola has composed two operas. The Mastersingers of Mars is a delightful cartoon opera including elements unusual for an opera, and his second opera The Mustard Seed is a serious study of a Finnish religious dissident. The Piano Concerto premiered at the Helsinki Festival in 1996 is an unprecedented work in new Finnish music in its expressive range, variety of styles and scope. The Clarinet Concerto has been a roaring success and it has performed several times since the premiere in 2001. The Chamber Concerto commissioned by Present Music was premiered in Milwaukee, USA in March 2002. Hakola has also composed an Oboe Concerto (2005-06) and a Flute Concerto (“L’or de Azur”, 2007). His other orchestral works include a Sinfonietta (1999), Verdoyances crepuscules (2003) and Maro, commissioned by the Swedish Radio and Berwald Hall for a performance at the Baltic Sea Festival in August 2006.
One of Hakola’s largest works is Le Sacrifice, an oratorio tied in closely with the film of Andrei Tarkovsky. It was commissioned by Ircam for a performance in Paris in November 2002, and a new, revised version was heard in Helsinki in 2005. Le Sacrifice was one of the three winners of the first Teosto Prize awarderd by the Finnish Composers' Copyright Society in 2003. Kimmo Hakola's new large scale-oratorio Song of Songs was premiered on 20 October 2006 at the International Choral Espoo festival. Hakola has also written works for mixed choir.
Hakola's oeuvre includes also chamber works, the weightiest of them being his three string quartets and the Clarinet Quintet from 1998. His latest chamber and instrumental works are Consolation (2004) for cello and piano, Arara lunaire (2004) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, and Altar for organ (2006).
Kimmo Hakola is the composer-in-residence of the Joensuu City Orchestra. Apart from composing he has also turned towards conducting and acting as a performing artist. He has been the Artistic Director of the Musica nova festival in 1999-2006 and the artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir since 2005. His works have been recorded by Ondine and Innova Records.
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