Outi Tarkiainen 2016 liggende Foto Sigel Eschkol
Foto: Sigel Eschkol

Outi Tarkiainen (b. 1985) is a composer who works with both classical and jazz music. She has composed vocal and chamber music, works for soloist with orchestra, as well as music for jazz orchestras and ensembles. Her music has been heard in several European countries as well as in the United States.  In 2015 she was invited as a composer-in-residence to a Festival d’Uzerche in France, where many of her chamber works were featured. Tarkiainen's music has been recorded by Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Norrbotten Big Band, Umo Jazz Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra and Metropole String Orchestra. In addition to her work as a composer she is an artistic director of the Silence Festival in Kaukonen, Finnish Lapland.

- During my residence I will work on a chamber music version of my orchestra song cycle "Eanan, vida nieida" (engl. Earth, Spring's Daughter), which I was composing also in my latest residence in Lásságámmi in June 2015.

The song cycle's text is a collage of Sámi poets from Norway, Sweden and Finland, including also some of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää's texts. The chamber music version is written for Ääninen Ensemble (www.aaninen.com), which is an ensemble performing new music and creating concert programs based on social or political themes in collaboration with other arts and sciences.