Kalevi Aho

Kalevi Aho, one of Finland’s leading composers of today, was born in Forssa in southern Finland on 9th March 1949. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Einojuhani Rautavaara and in West Berlin in Boris Blacher’s composition class. In the years 1974-1988 he was a lecturer in musicology at Helsinki University; from 1988 until 1993 he was professor of composition at the Sibelius Academy and since the autumn of 1993 he has been a freelance composer. Kalevi Aho has composed 17 symphonies in all. They include Symphony No. 12, “Luosto” (2002-03), designed for outdoor purposes, Symphony No. 13 subtitled “Symphonic Characterizations” (2003), Symphony No. 14 “Rituals” for darabuka, djembe, gongs and chamber orchestra (2007), Symphony No. 15 (2009-10) commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic and the Lahti Symphony, and Symphony No. 16 commissioned by YLE and premiered by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2015.