Sebastian Fagerlund

Sebastian Fagerlund

Otto Eric Sebastian Fagerlund (born 6 December 1972, Parainen, Finland) is a Finnish composer. He is described as “a post-modern impressionist whose sound landscapes can be heard as ecstatic nature images which, however, are always inner images, landscapes of the mind”.[1] Echoes of Western culture, Oriental music and heavy metal may, for example, all be detected under the same Sky in the music of Fagerlund.[2]

His output covers a wide variety of genres, ranging from chamber opera to chamber music and works for solo instruments. The most prominent are his concertos and his works for orchestra.

Together with clarinettist Christoffer Sundqvist, Fagerlund is Artistic Director of the RUSK Chamber Music Festival they founded in Pietarsaari/Jakobstad, Finland in 2013.

Fagerlund is the Composer in Residence of The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam season 2016/17.

Studies

Fagerlund began his musical studies with violin lessons at the Turku Conservatory, where his teacher was Simo Vuoristo. After a year spent studying in the Netherlands, he applied for the Sibelius Academy to study composition and graduated from the class of Erkki Jokinen in 2004. He has also attended master classes with Michael Jarrell, Magnus Lindberg, Ivan Fedele and others.

Compositions

The Clarinet Concerto (2006) steeped in colour marked a turning point in Fagerlund’s career as a composer. Like a trek through areas that all sound different, a series of sensations, it reinforced his status as one of the leading Finnish composers. The alternation of darkness and light, of movement and motionlessness, of violence and sensitivity, permeates the tone poem Isola (Island, 2007), another major orchestral work. Both works were premiered at the Korsholm Music Festival. His surrealistic chamber opera Döbeln (2009) constructed around hallucinations won the Record of the Year award of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) and was a commission from the West Coast Opera Kokkola. The orchestral Ignite (2010), constructed like a spiral, has fired audiences the world over. The Violin Concerto Darkness in Light inhabiting the zone between dream and reality was tailored for Pekka Kuusisto and was immensely successful when premiered in Tampere in September 2012. The concerto was partly inspired by the literature of Haruki Murakami. The dreamy guitar concerto Transit (2013) commissioned by Yle and premiered by Ismo Eskelinen has continued Fagerlund’s series of concertos.

Fagerlund has said: “A sort of primitivism is present in many of my works. As a result, rhythm, in particular, has become very important. I am fascinated by relentless drive and energy.”.[3] Salient features of Fagerlund’s music are his interest in large-scale forms and details of them, and a profound view of music as the expresser of fundamental questions and existential experiences.[1]

Works by Fagerlund have been performed around the world by for ex. the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonico Nazionale RAI, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony and the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Prizes

2010 Nominated for the Nordic Music Prize for Sky
2010 Record of the Year Award of the Yle music editors for the recording of Döbeln
2011 Emma Award for best classical, for the orchestral Isola
2011 Teosto Prize for the orchestral Ignite
2011 Ignite selected as a recommended work at the International Rostrum of Composers in Vienna
2016 Nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize for Mana- Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra

Works

Works for the Stage

Works for Orchestra or Large Ensemble

Works for Soloist and Orchestra

Chamber Works

Works for Solo Instrument

Vocal and Choral Works

Electro-acoustic Works

Discography

Links

References

  1. 1 2 Susanna Välimäki: CD booklet BIS-SACD-1707.
  2. ↑ Susanna Välimäki: Composer profile on the Music Finland website
  3. ↑ Teostory 2/2011.
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