Debate: Avanti! x Composition workshop

Composition course for professional composers The composition workshop is held annually at the same time as the Avant Garde Summer Play. Composers from all over the world take part in the course. The course is taught by composers Jukka Tiensuu and  Tomi Räisänen.

As an important part of the course, each participant has been given the task of composing a new work during the spring, which will be performed by the chamber orchestra Avanti! at a concert in connection with the Summer Festival on Sunday 29 June at 13.00 under the direction of conductor Jukka Rantamäki at the Art Factory in Porvoo.

“The task is different every year, but it always aims to force the composers out of their comfort zone and create something they’ve tended to avoid before,” says Jukka Tiensuu, one of the course’s co-teachers. “Through this new kind of challenge, the hope is that composers will discover a new kind of creativity lurking within themselves – to the delight of us all.”

Composition workshop from the website for this year’s participants.

The first composition course was held in 1987. Over the years the course has been taught by  Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen, Jukka Tiensuu, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Tomi Räisänen. The Composition Workshop Association was founded in 2006 to support the organisation of the course.