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Kalevi Aho
Kalevi Aho, one of Finland’s foremost contemporary composers, was born in 1949. He studied the violin and composition (with Einojuhani Rautavaara) at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, continuing his studies in Berlin at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst. In 1994 he was awarded a fifteen-year grant from the Finnish state.
A highly productive composer, the central focus of Aho’s work consists of large-scale orchestral, chamber and vocal works – to date he has written no less than thirteen symphonies as well as concertos, vocal music and a large amount of music for chamber ensembles and solo instruments. He has also made a number of arrangements and orchestrations of works by other composers. Since 1992 Aho has been composer-in-residence of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra; musicians from Lahti are recording Aho’s complete works for BIS.
Aho has also gained a reputation as an assiduous writer on music and columnist. In 1974 he was awarded the Leonie Sonning Prize in Denmark, and in 1990 the Henrik Steffens Prize in Lübeck. In recognition of all of his work to date he received the 1996 Flisaka Prize in Poland. In 2000 he was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal. His Flute Concerto is dedicated to Sharon Bezaly, who gave the work its first performance on November 27, 2003 with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä. |
