Young composers perform their works for the symphony orchestra in the Uuno Klami composition competition.
Composers of the future face each other in the Uuno Klami composition competition. The youth final concerts will be played today, Wednesday, in Kotka and tomorrow, Thursday, at Kuusankoskitalo.
The national competition, organized every five years, is intended for composition enthusiasts and students aged 10–19. With it, we want to strengthen young composers’ finding their own voice.
In the composition competition, compositions written by young people and their live performances, performed by Kymi Sinfonietta, are competed for.
The composer opens his heart to the audience
Now he has arrived in Kotka to rehearse his piece *La pájara* with the symphony orchestra.
He describes his first work for orchestra as a symphonic poem.
– The theme of death appears in the work, as in Octavio Paz’s poem. The composition is mainly atonal music, but there are also major keys. I want to show that death is a part of life. It comes to everyone at some point, and it can also be thought of as peace, as expressed by the major key.
Music is personally very important to Gabriel Kivivuori Sereno, as it is also a connection to his own feelings.
– Whether it’s about any instrument – playing the piano, singing or composing – music is a wonderful thing because you are in direct contact with your own emotions, Kivivuori Sereno describes.
The composer spent his childhood in Mexico. The Spanish name of the work *La pájara*, the bird in Finnish, was also his mother’s nickname. Mother died of cancer when Kivivuori Sereno was 11 years old.
– The scars I got from that experience have given me an impossibly strong foundation on which I have found my own voice, he says.
Uuno Klami (1900–1961) was one of the early modernists of Finnish composition. He was born in Virolahti and worked his way up from modest circumstances to the popularity of the people. According to the National Biography maintained by the Suomalainen Kirjalisuuden Seura, Klami is one of Finland’s most significant Finnish orchestral composers.
First composition at the age of 4
– It’s exciting, Does the composition sound good, because I’ve only heard it on my iPad before, and it repeats some parts incorrectly, says Syrjänen.
Syrjänen participates in the 10–14-year-old age group with his piece *Concertino in B minor, n.o. 2, Part 1: The Moment*.
– The work is a little sad, but also happy in some places. I don’t see any theme in it, but it reminds me of some stories. It’s a treasure hunt where the genre changes.
In June, Yle did a story about Syrjäse, who started composing at the age of four. In addition to composing, the sidekick’s dream profession is to be an actor in Disney musicals, because he also likes to sing.
Ideas never seen before
A record number of young composers applied to the Uuno Klami composition competition this year.
– Ten very different works will be heard in the finale. There is romance, a bit of jazz, a baroque concert about remembrance, and quite modern, also visually strange visions that take place on stage, Almila describes.
The audience coming to the concert hall will be pampered this year, as the works of the competition will be judged not only on the sheet music but also on the basis of the performances.
According to Almila, children and young people are fearless to try everything.
– The participants are really skilled writers. You can see that the prerequisites for writing for an orchestra are clearly already known. But still there are ideas that we conductors and the orchestra have never seen before.
According to Almila, it is extremely difficult to rank composers. Many promising works were also left out of the final.
– In this competition, the victory is already in having one’s work performed and it is even broadcast. Visibility and recognition is really valuable for a beginner.
The works will be performed by the musicians of Kymi Sinfonietta at the Kotka concert hall on Wednesday 9 November. and at Kuusankoskitalo on Thursday 10 November 2022.
Yleisradio will broadcast the final concert and award ceremony live on Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 7 p.m. on Yle Radio Yhdella. You can listen to the broadcast live in Areena or later as a recording.