Tapio Tuomela (1958)

Picture: Maarit Kytöharju/Fimic

Tapio Tuomela studied piano and conducting and later composition at the Sibelius-Academy with Eero Hämeenniemi, Magnus Lindberg and Paavo Heininen. He supplemented his studies in Soviet Union and at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York as well as at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. He has also attended master classes by Witold Lutoslawski, George Crumb, Klaus Huber, Brian Ferneyhough etc.

Tuomela's works have been performed widely in European, American and Finnish music festivals. His compositions have been selected by the UNESCO Rostrum and he has received commissions by the Finnish National Opera, Ensemble Musicatreize and OrchestrUtopica among others. He was invited as a featured composer in the Nordic Music Festival in St Petersburg in 2005 and Festival Musiques Demésurées, Clermont-Ferrand in 2006. 2000-2008 Tuomela was artistic director of the Time of Music Festival in Finland.

Tuomela is also active as a conductor. He has performed with orchestras in all Scandinavian countries, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Lithuania.

Hölmöläisiä

Hölmöläisiä is a music play for children composed as a commission for the West Helsinki Music Institute in 2001 for an orchestra of string players aged 10-15 and a folk song ensemble. It tells nine tales (lasting about 40 minutes in all) woven together to form a narrative with a plot about the stupid people of Hölmölä. The libretto was co-written by Sanna Harju, producer of the premiere, but the song texts are the composer’s. Hölmöläisiä could also be regarded as a melodrama – not an opera – in that the dialogues carrying the story along are spoken over and in between the music.

Since Hölmöläisiä was, for many children, their first contact with contemporary music, it had to be easily accessible both aesthetically and stylistically in its technical demands on the players. The main idea of the premiere project was to let the children in the orchestra have a turn at appearing on stage. The vocal ensemble in this performance has grown into a children’s choir, and the players do not appear on stage.

Tapio Tuomela

http://webusers.siba.fi/~ttuomela/koti.htm