Kaija Saariaho, née Kaija Anneli Laakkonen, was born in Finland on 14 October 1952. She studied visual arts at the University of Industrial Arts (now part of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) in Helsinki. She subsequently turned to composition, studying with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy from 1976 to 1980, and with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough at the Freiburg Musikhochschule from 1981 to 1983. She also studied computer music at IRCAM starting in 1982, and since then has remained a resident of Paris. She taught composition at UC San Diego in 1988-89 and at the Sibelius Academy in 1997-98 and from 2005 to 2009.

Saariaho’s work is heavily influenced by spectral music. Key to her musical language since the 1980s is the exploration of the concept of the “timbral axis,” in which “a noisy, grainy texture is akin to a dissonance, whereas a smooth, transparent texture corresponds to a consonance.” The malleable sonorities of the cello and flute lend themselves perfectly to this ongoing research; works such as Laconisme de l’aile for flute (1982) and Près for cello and electronics (1992) explore the space between ethereal, light sounds and saturated, noisy textures.

Kaija Saariaho has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis for Lichtbogen (1986), a work in which she revealed her personal, luminous form of tonality, derived from the spectral aesthetic; and the Prix Ars Electronica for Stilleben (1988), a virtuosic radiophonic work which explores the vagaries of consciousness. In the 2000s, her works continued to receive accolades, including a Nordic Council Music Prize (2000), Prix Schock (2001), American Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition (2003), Musical America Composer (2008), Wihuri Sibelius Prize (2009), Léonie Sonning Music Prize (Denmark, 2011), Grand Prix Lycéen for Composers (2013) for Leino Songs, the “Frontiers of Knowledge” Prize from the BBVA Foundation (2018) for her contribution to contemporary music, and the Golden Lion prize from Biennale Musica (2021).

Saariaho’s musical language crystalised in the 1980s. It is marked by gradual transformations of sonic material, as manifest in the diptych for orchestra Du cristal…à la fumée. Other particularly paradigmatic pieces include NoaNoa, Amers, Près, and Solar, composed in 1992 and 1993. A brief period of creative uncertainty followed the composition of these works, coinciding with the composer’s newfound international acclaim and a string of commissions. The opera l’Amour de loin (1999-2000), with a libretto by Amin Maalouf and directed by Peter Sellars, marked the beginning of a new phase for Saariaho, in which concepts derived from spectralism, now totally absorbed into her creative identity, merged with a novel form of lyricism. Following this opera, for which Kent Nagano’s recording received a Grammy Award in 2011, Saariaho composed a string of orchestral works for the world’s leading orchestras, and a second opera (Adriana Mater) and a passion on the life of Simone Weil (The Passion of Simone), both of which were further collaborations with Sellars and Maalouf. Émilie (2008), a monodrama with a libretto by Maalouf based on the writings of Émilie du Châtelet, was premiered by Karita Mattila at the Lyon Opera in 2010. In 2012, she composed Circle Map for orchestra and electronics, in which six poems by Rumi, read in their original Persian, were both the basis for the material in the electronics and the inspiration for the instrumental writing. Her opera Only the Sound Remains (2015), again directed by Peters Sellars and inspired by Ezra Pound’s translations of two Noh theatre plays, was premiered in 2016 at the Amsterdam Opera.

Saariaho’s creative work is always the result of collaborations with other artists, including musicologist Risto Nieminen, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and cellist Anssi Karttunen (Finnish artists and former members of the “Korvat Auki!” [“Open your ears!”] group, a collective founded in the 1970s in Helsinki with which Saariaho regularly worked), as well as flutist Camilla Hoitenga, sopranos Dawn Upshaw and Karita Mattila, and pianist Emmanuel Ax.