Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023) was among the most celebrated composers of her time: a Finnish artist based for most of her career in Paris, where her work at IRCAM, the centre for electroacoustic research, decisively shaped her style. She became renowned for music of luminous, shimmering, mysterious textures, created by synthesising and layering timbres, harmonies and rhythms (often combining live performers with electronics) into vast, slowly shifting sonic landscapes, an outgrowth of the ‘spectral’ approach to composition. Her operas, above all L’Amour de loin, brought her international fame, and her orchestral and vocal works are widely performed. Her music is sensuous and atmospheric, concerned with colour, light and the gradual transformation of sound.