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SEPTEMBER 29TH - OCTOBER 8TH 2000 |
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organised by  (ISCM Luxembourg Section) Information: info@worldmusicdays.com |
Johan Tallgren
(Photo: Maarit Kytharju)
Johan Tallgren, born in Helsinki in 1971, studied composition at the Sibelius Academy with
Paavo Heininen, from 1991 to 1996. After that he studied composition in Paris with Kaija
Saariaho, and orchestration with Marc-André Dalbavie. Currently he is studying with Brian
Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds and Chinary Ung at University of California for a master in
Music. He has attended master courses held by Magnus Lindberg, Anders Hillborg, Jouni
Kaipainen and York Holler in Finland, and in France with Gérard Grisey, Klaus Huber and
Sir Harrison Birtwistle.
Tallgren's music has been performed during the Helsinki Biennale, Tampere Biennale, Ars
Musica (Brussels), Youth Nordic Music festivals in Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, and has
been played by Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Caput, Zagros-ensemble, Avanti!-musicians
and Kerberos. His piece Asteria represented Finland in UNESCOs Rostrum in Paris in 1997.
He was in 1995-96 the chairman of the "Korvat auki" (Ears Open) organisation for young
composers in Helsinki, and has since 1990 written music reviews on a freelance-basis for
different newspapers and music magazines in Finland.
Codename Orpheus
The novel, The Medusa Frequency, by British Russell Hoban, is located in the yuppie-London
of the 1980's. In the book, the author discusses the film director Gösta Kraken with his
colleague. The author has not seen Krakens highly prized movie Codename Orpheus where, in
the closing scene, the head of Orpheus flows down the Thames. I haven't seen it either.
Since Orpheus, however, is one of my favourite characters both in music and world literature,
I decided to pay tribute to him by composing music for the film in question with the
enlarged ego of a young composer.