Kaija Saariaho 70

“Studying under Kaija’s guidance proved to be an important experience to all of us who were learning from her – for some of us, you could say it was even life-changing.” In his essay, composer Juha T. Koskinen reflects on how having been taught by Kaija Saariaho has shaped his thinking as well as his compositional output and processes.

"All pieces in this Special Feature share one theme: the significance of encounters," writes Lasse Lehtonen.

Over the decades, numerous musicians and ensembles around the world have performed the music of Kaija Saariaho. Without long-term relationships with trusted interpreters, the Finnish composer’s music would have travelled quite a different path.

"The world is a mosaic of beliefs, of languages, of varied communities, and the question is not whether it is possible for them to coexist but how their coexistence could be facilitated, because we have no choice”, writes Kaija Saariaho in her column, originally published in FMQ in 2019.

Kaija Saariaho, who settled in France in the early 1980s, spent the 1997- 98 academic year as visiting composition professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. The FMQ asked her how she felt at the end of her stay.