Maria Kallionpää

“For many years, I did not imagine that my music would engage directly with environmental questions. As a student, I was mainly concerned with sound, structure and innovation. Only later did I begin to feel that composition could also reflect our relationship with nature. The Reef grew out of this realisation.” In this column, part of the series “On My Music and Beyond”, Maria Kallionpää describes the compositional process behind her award-winning work.

The Tampere Biennale 2020, a contemporary music festival scheduled for April, has been cancelled to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As a substituting programme, the Biennale and the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle will organise a radio festival titled Tampere Biennale 2.0. Composer Jennah Vainio, the artistic director of the Tampere Biennale, spoke to FMQ about the scheduled programme of the event 2020 and about her work as a composer.