Myllärinen, Tiina

(*1979)

Tiina Myllärinen (born in 1979) is a freelance composer working for a doctorate at the Sibelius Academy. She has composed orchestral, choral, chamber and solo works and experimented with electronic music. Outside Finland works by her have been performed in the United States, Italy, Germany, Japan, Spain, UK,  Lithuania, Iceland and Norway. Among those who have commissioned works from her are the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the University of Helsinki, the Time of Music festival, the Uusinta ensemble, the Sea Lapland String Quartet, the Polytech Choir (PK) and the “ja kitara soi” guitar festival.

Tiina Myllärinen’s music has been described as cheerfully inquisitive, vigorous and original. Her works include Squarcio for ensemble, the orchestral what? (2010) and Traces (2013, commissioned by the Pro Musica Foundation and premiered at the Helsinki Music Centre on 5 June 2014) and Three Songs for voice, guitar and cello (2007). Her 1st string quartet (Bad) Dreams come true has received several performances and was awarded in September 2023 by the Finnish Music Publishers’ Association. A recent work is Pinnan alla (Bubbling Under, 2023), an exciting work that combines elements of opera and  spatial art. The idea of the text focuses on the Saimaa ringed seal, a highly endangered freshwater species

When asked to state her sources of inspiration, Myllärinen mentions different forms of communication, such as human behaviour and space/form/structure solutions in other arts (dance, visual arts, film). She is also inspired by the combination of colours, forms and motions in nature and sounds in the environment. She is especially interested in acoustic phenomena, such as resonance, and making them audible and perceptible to an audience. “Just as the experience of a visual work of art can be altered by changing the lighting, music to some extent depends on the acoustics in which it is performed,” she says. Her works may incorporate these in different ways. In a musical piece by her, for example, the musicians, the audience or both can move around in different acoustical spaces. Sometimes the acoustic phenomena and illusions of different spaces have been written into in the music itself (with echoes, for example). Or the piece may utilise an instrument’s characteristics (such as the rich resonances of a grand piano’s soundboard) to create illusions of space.

Tiina Myllärinen likes to question things, to challenge ideas and to seek out alternative perspectives, and this is reflected in her compositions. Some of her recent pieces also take a stand on such phenomena as ecocatastrophe or the power structure in society.

Pinnan alla

Ooppera neljälle laulajalle ja yhtyeelle (2023)

soli SSTB - vl-cl-tr-perc-pf

Duration: 45

Squarcio

(2011)

for ensemble

Fl., Ob., Cl., Trp., Trb, Pno, Vl. 1, Vl. 2, Vla, Vlc., Cb.

Duration: 8

Traces

(2014)

for orchestra

3(II & III +picc).3.3.3-4.3.3(III=btrb).1-1.3-pf.hp-str(14/12/10/8/6)

Duration: 10

what?

(2010)

for orchestra

3333-4331-02-1-pno+cel-str

Duration: 10

Tiina Myllärinen: (Bad) Dreams come true for string quartet
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Tiina Myllärinen awarded
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Tiina Myllärinen: Three Songs for female voice, guitar and cello
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