Max Savikangas portrait photo by Tuomas Tenkanen

Savikangas, Max

*1969

Max Savikangas is a Finnish composer and violist whose music combines a richly varied sonic palette with physical intensity, dramatic tension and a compelling sense of forward motion. His output encompasses orchestral, chamber, solo and vocal music, opera, electroacoustic works and collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers and dancers. His music has been performed on five continents.

Savikangas’s experience as a performer is fundamental to his compositional approach. He pays particular attention to precise notation and idiomatic instrumental writing, including when exploring extended techniques and unfamiliar sonorities. These are integral to his musical language: timbre shapes the musical argument alongside melody, harmony and rhythm. His scores offer performers the opportunity to expand their expressive range through writing that is demanding yet grounded in a practical understanding of instrumental technique.

For listeners, this exploration of sound unfolds through vivid contrasts, rhythmic energy and a strong sense of musical direction. Savikangas’s music can be abrasive, playful, contemplative or intensely lyrical, often drawing these qualities into the same dramatic trajectory. Rather than seeking easy appeal, it invites engaged listening, offering both performers and audiences the rewards of discovery. His works also engage with social and ecological questions, opening connections between musical experience and the wider world.

His orchestral works include Whisked Whistle (2011), Slam Dunk for orchestra and two basketball players (2018), and War or Peace (2024), jointly commissioned by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered under Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Other major works include Azonal, a chamber concerto for viola and twelve players (2015–16), Keys for piano and keyboard soloist and orchestra (2023), and the science-fiction chamber opera Ihmisen jälkeen (Posthuman) (2020–23), to a libretto by Teemu Mäki, premiered at the Musica nova Helsinki festival in 2023. His recent chamber music includes a Sonata for viola and piano, Trois amis for flute, viola and harp, and AI Viola? for viola and interactive artificial intelligence, all composed in 2025.

Savikangas graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Sibelius Academy in 1998, following earlier studies in musicology at the University of Helsinki. His composition teachers included Anders Eliasson, Paavo Heininen and Olli Kortekangas. He also studied electroacoustic music with Andrew Bentley, Juhani Liimatainen and Jean-Baptiste Barrière, and viola with Matti Hirvikangas and Teemu Kupiainen.

He is a founding member and violist of Uusinta Ensemble, which shared the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance with the Helsinki Chamber Choir and conductor Nils Schweckendiek for the album Kaija Saariaho: Reconnaissance. His work as a composer and performer reflects a sustained commitment to extending the expressive possibilities of contemporary music.

Fourteen works previously published by Uusinta Publishing became part of the Fennica Gehrman catalogue at the beginning of 2026. Scores of the following works are available from Fennica Gehrman:

  • Song of the Blissful for solo viola and optional dancer (1994)
  • Danza for viola e arpa (1995/97)
  • Death at Work for solo viola (1997)
  • Nostalgia March for alto saxophone and piano (1993/99)
  • Milk for reciter and string quartet, to a text by Teemu Mäki (1999)
  • Extraterrestrial for solo viola (2001)
  • First eRRe for violin and viola (2002)
  • Second eRRe for viola and bass clarinet (2002)
  • Emergency Étude for piano, viola, cello and double bass (2002)
  • Kaliki for solo cello and three optional music videos, available from AV-arkki (2003)
  • Turkish Overture for piano (2005), pedagogical work, part of the Piano Blend collection
  • Black Metal for baritone saxophone and piano (2007)
  • Reverie for piano (2010), pedagogical work
  • Extrasolar for viola and piano (2015)
  • Easydifficult – Chips for Two Violins (2020), pedagogical work, part of the Violin Blend collection
Photo: Tuomas Tenkanen