Gheorghiu, Matei

Matei Gheorghiu is a Romanian-Finnish composer whose music brings a distinctive contemporary voice to orchestral, choral, chamber and solo repertoire. He studied at the National University of Music Bucharest with Nicolae Coman, Dan Dediu and Octavian Nemescu, before continuing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Tapio Tuomela. Since 2016, he has pursued doctoral studies there under Veli-Matti Puumala.

In 2024, Gheorghiu won the Uuno Klami Composition Competition with his piano concerto From the Village of Nowhere, becoming the first Finnish or Romanian composer to receive the award. The work also earned both the audience prize and the orchestra prize—an unprecedented sweep in the competition’s history.

His connection with the Sibelius Academy has included a rare large-scale composition concert featuring orchestral and choral works. Presented in January 2014, the concert launched the “Atso’s Corner” series hosted by conductor Atso Almila.

A committed advocate for new music, Gheorghiu served for eight years on the board of Finland’s young composers’ society Korvat Auki, including as its longest-serving chair, vice-chair, grant strategist and keyboardist of the Korvat Auki Ensemble. He also directed the society’s anniversary festival, Korvat 35, How Far Can You Hear?, and was selected from more than 100 applicants for Nouvel Ensemble Moderne’s “Le Forum” residency in Montreal in 2014.

Gheorghiu’s music has been performed across 12 countries by ensembles and orchestras including Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Avanti!, defunensemble, Uusinta, Zagros, Athelas, Caput, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Kuopio Philharmonic Orchestra. His work has appeared at festivals such as Musica nova Helsinki, Time of Music, Tampere Biennale, Suvisoitto and Ung Nordisk Musik.

Matei Gheorghiu’s website

Photo: Octavian Balea