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Mikko Heiniö

Mikko Kyösti Heiniö
Born May 18, 1948, Tampere

BA 1972, licentiate 1978, PhD 1984 (musicology), University of Helsinki

Freelance composer 2005–
Musicology Professor 1986–2005, University of Turku
Musicology assistant / Acting assistant professor 1977–1985, University of Helsinki

Key positions of trust
Vice chair of the Finnish Music Foundation (MES) 2013–15
Vice chair of the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto 1999–2014
Chair of the Society of Finnish Composers 1992–2010
Vice chair for the Foundation for Creative Art Composition 1989–1997
Chair of the Sibelius Fund 1988–1992

Significant Honours
Tieto-Finlandia Award for Suomen musiikin historia I-IV (‘The history of Finnish music I–IV’) 1997 (with Fabian Dahström and Erkki Salmenhaara)
Finland Prize 2006
Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music 2004
Honorary member of the Society of Finnish Composers 2010
Honorary member of the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto 2014

Photo: Elke Albrecht
Written by Mikko Heiniö (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta, ed.)
Translated by Joe McVeigh

A composer, from the first to the last

After graduating from Sibelius Academy in 1975, I moved to West Berlin for two years (Hochschule der Künste) to study under professor Witold Szalonek and when I returned to Finland, I took Sibelius Academy’s composition diploma.

My first ‘earnest’ compositions are from the early 1970s but my late start at composing shows in the fact that I have banned any public performances of all my works composed before 1978. From the 1980s onwards I composed only by commision (the commisions came from symphony orchestras, festivals, choirs, the church and opera organizations). Often people would ask me which one I actually was, a musicologist or a composer, and my reply was: ‘I have come to the world of music as a composer, and I shall also leave it as a composer, but in between I can do other things as well.’

​West-African rhythms in Benin, 2001. Photo: Riitta Heiniö.​
​West-African rhythms in Benin, 2001. Photo: Riitta Heiniö.​

During my university years I could only compose during the summer months, which were just enough for one orchestral work, for instance. The operas turned everything on its head since they are projects which take two to three years, and writing them piecemeal over several summers would not have worked.

In 2005 it was time to choose between a job until my retirement and life as a free artist, and I chose the latter. In Turku, my closest collaborators have turned out to be the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Dance Theatre ERI, the chamber choir Key Ensemble, and the Turku Music Festival.

Kurt Nikkanen as the soloist in the world premiere of the violin concerto Alla madre in 2008. Photo: Matti Kivekäs.​
Kurt Nikkanen as the soloist in the world premiere of the violin concerto Alla madre in 2008. Photo: Matti Kivekäs.​
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