Composer Aulis Sallinen celebrates 90th birthday
April 9 marks the 90th birthday of one of Finland’s most celebrated composers, Aulis Sallinen. At 90, the maestro shows no signs of slowing down.
Best known for his operas, Sallinen made his breakthrough 50 years ago with Ratsumies (The Horseman), which premiered at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1975. The work received wide international acclaim and, along with Punainen viiva (The Red Line) that followed, firmly established Sallinen as Finland’s leading opera composer. His operas quickly became a cornerstone of Finnish operatic art in the 1970s and ’80s.
Sallinen studied composition at the Sibelius Academy from 1955 to 1960 under Aarre Merikanto and Joonas Kokkonen. Over a career spanning more than half a century, he has composed not only operas but also an extensive catalogue of other stage works and ballets, vocal music, chamber pieces, orchestral compositions, symphonies, and several concertos–many of them internationally acclaimed. His achievements have earned him numerous awards and honors, including the Nordic Council Music Prize and the Pro Finlandia Medal. He is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.
At 90, Sallinen shows no signs of slowing down. In the past year alone, he has composed three new works, the most recent being the melodrama Shaka, which will receive its world premiere in early June at the Naantali Music Festival. Meanwhile, this May, Ratsumies will return to the stage in a new production at the Finnish National Opera, and throughout 2025, several orchestras across Finland will celebrate the composer's anniversary year with special concerts.
Read more:
FMQ – On my music and beyond: About the anatomy of an artwork (Dec 8, 2021), words by Aulis Sallinen