The Sound of Now: TampereRaw – The Beginning of Time

The Beginning of Time, the third concert in Tampere Hall and TampereRaw’s Ajan ääni (The Sound of Time) series, invites us to pause and reflect on time. Time is constant change, birth, growth and the passing of all things.

The concert draws its inspiration from Olivier Messiaen’s celebrated Quartet for the End of Time, composed and first performed in a German prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War.

The quartet was one of the great Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen’s favourite works. Long ago, in the early days of the contemporary music ensemble TampereRaw, Jouni encouraged its young musicians to explore the piece and add it to their repertoire. It has been with us ever since, for the past 25 years.

Quartet for the End of Time continues to speak to us through its enduring relevance and distinctive voice, as do the many contemporary works that TampereRaw’s musicians have had the privilege of performing over the years.

The Ajan ääni concert series was originally conceived to bring composers, performers and audiences together in an entirely new way, and to ensure that our own time, too, can be seen and heard in art, both now and in the future.

We also want to discover voices that might otherwise go unheard. Our task is as vast as it is fascinating. We approach it with humility.

To honour Jouni Kaipainen’s role in our ensemble’s beginnings and Olivier Messiaen’s work, which inspires hope and faith, we have put together a programme that reminds us of the madness of the world around us, but also of the beauty of life and the power of true humanity.

We will hear works by five composers, Petri Nieminen, Eelis Uusivirta, Outi Tarkiainen, Esa Pietilä and Jüri Reinvere, exploring life, death and the wonder of rebirth from different perspectives. Although Olivier Messiaen’s quartet will not be performed, its spirit will accompany us throughout the concert, woven in one way or another into the music and spoken introductions.

Join us to experience the birth of new music and make this moment in time meaningful!

Anna Angervo, Artistic Director and Producer, TampereRaw

Petri Nieminen is a Tampere-based musician and composer known for his wide-ranging work as a theatre musician, film and theatre composer, jazz musician and instrumental teacher. In addition to his instrumental studies, Nieminen has studied composition, arranging and theology. His collaborations with director Jarmo Lampela include scores for five feature films and several television series and films. He has also composed music for more than 20 theatre productions with other directors.

Nieminen’s compositions have been performed by TampereRaw, the FinesTre String Quartet, the PMO Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Big Band and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He has released the jazz albums Night walk and The Brightest Matter. A pop and schlager album with the band Kuuntuulet is currently in the works. Nieminen won first prize in the Esko Linnavalli Big Band Composition Competition in 2017, and his score for the film Joki was nominated for a Jussi Award in 2001.

Beasts of War, for viola, cello and double bass, will be performed at TampereRaw’s The Beginning of Time concert. The work was commissioned by two of the ensemble’s long-standing musicians, Heili Hannikainen and Maija Juuti. This combination of instruments is extremely rare. The timbres of the lower strings, without the violins’ high register, create a sound world that reinforces the work’s profound message. Alongside its instrumentation, the piece was shaped by the central idea of our concert: the need for a new beginning of time.

The composer writes that, in keeping with the concert’s theme, the piece opens with an atmosphere evoking the primordial twilight of life’s beginnings. Gradually, however, signs emerge of the struggles that are ever-present in the lives of all species. Beasts of War is dedicated to the current state of the world and to the political leaders who aggravate and even exploit it. The war in Ukraine, the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, US territorial demands and the war in Iran, which has thrown the global economy into turmoil, have all left their mark on the piece.

Eelis Uusivirta is a composer and conductor with a passion for creating music, conducting orchestras and developing concert activity. He graduated from Kaustinen Music Upper Secondary School in 2023 and is currently studying towards a degree in music pedagogy at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, specialising in both composition and orchestral conducting.

Uusivirta is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the wind orchestra Akateeminen henkäys and also conducts the wind ensemble Oktaavi. As a composer, he has gained recognition for Pulsari, which won first prize in the Pirkanmaan Pinna Composition Competition in 2025. The work is also published by the Finnish Wind Band Association.

We became acquainted with Eelis and his music in summer 2026 through the Tampere Biennale. The festival’s Artistic Director, Minna Leinonen, wanted to showcase a Tampere-based composition student, and Eelis’s Maininki was selected for TampereRaw’s concert programme through a call for works by composition students. His distinctive musical voice, skilful instrumentation and beautiful sound world resonated with us.

Alongside composing and conducting, Uusivirta is actively involved in music organisations and festivals. He is a board member of Tampering ry and Executive Producer of the Tampering Festival. Eelis has also served as Chair and Vice Chair of Tampereen ammatilliset musiikinopiskelijat ry, an association representing music students in Tampere.

The string quartet Hetkien välissä (Between Moments), to be performed at TampereRaw’s concert, explores a theme that connects both with the programme and with Eelis’s own life. In the composer’s own words, the work reflects on the time between moments. These are not necessarily major milestones in life, but all the time that carries us from one thing to the next, allowing us to prepare for what lies ahead.

Eelis Uusivirta’s work strikes a fine balance between composition, performance and the renewal of musical life. If a new era lies ahead for music, art and culture, Eelis Uusivirta is ideally placed to help bring about that change.

Esa Pietilä is a Finnish musician whose works bring together jazz, contemporary music and free improvisation. His versatile output ranges from solo and chamber works to compositions for symphony orchestra. In 2016, he received the prestigious Yrjö Award in recognition of his work in jazz.

Pietilä’s music continually breaks boundaries and creates new musical worlds. The forthcoming TampereRaw concert is no exception. We will hear the world premiere of Quartet for The Beginning of Time, written for the same instrumental combination as Olivier Messiaen’s celebrated Quartet for the End of Time. In his quartet, Pietilä reflects on the threats posed by a changing world, but also on hope, a theme present in both the opening and closing movements.

Outi Tarkiainen is surely one of the most compelling composers of our time. Her works have been commissioned and performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, San Francisco, Iceland, Stockholm and Gothenburg, as well as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is only fitting, then, that TampereRaw’s musicians should now have their first opportunity to perform music by this remarkable Finnish composer.

Tarkiainen is an exceptionally versatile composer whose output encompasses orchestral and chamber music, stage works, works for orchestra and soloist, and music for jazz orchestras. Her works reflect the society around us and challenge audiences with their uncompromising approach. In the composer’s own words, music is like a force of nature that can move through its listeners and even change the course of their lives.

Outi Tarkiainen was born in Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland. Her music draws deeply on the North, its natural surroundings and its people. Her chamber orchestra concerto Polar Pearls, for example, pays tribute to the unique character of the northern environment and its delicate balance. Her song cycle Eanan, gida nieida (2014–2015), meanwhile, draws on contemporary Sámi poetry.

Sensory Flashbacks, to be performed at TampereRaw’s The Beginning of Time concert, is a clarinet quintet written in 2024 for clarinet, string trio and piano. Outi describes the work as follows:

“Time is inexorably linear. Yet the senses make it surge, float and bend. The senses measure time in different ways: a familiar scent takes us back decades, while a skill once learned returns in an instant. The body remembers even what the mind forgot to protect itself.”

Here, too, Outi Tarkiainen’s music captures something we might not even notice, let alone be able to put into words.

Estonian-born Jüri Reinvere is a true polymath and citizen of the world whose life and career no biography could hope to capture in full. He has studied composition and theology in Warsaw and Helsinki, worked as an organist, contributed essays to the Estonian and Finnish public broadcasters and the newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine and Postimees, and served as a screenwriter and producer on various television productions. His music, deeply engaged with the world of today, has won over audiences and distinguished performers across Europe and beyond. He has received numerous honours and awards for his work as both a composer and an outspoken writer.

Jüri Reinvere’s music expresses a love of life and humanity, alongside a desire to discover new sound worlds. The human voice often features in his works as they explore existential themes. Reinvere has composed several operas, including Purge, based on Sofi Oksanen’s bestselling novel, for which he also wrote the libretto. His catalogue also includes compositions based on his own poetry and the spoken word. His versatility, erudition and humanity run through his extensive output, which engages with the present while drawing on history and lived cultural experience to offer listeners something familiar and reassuring.

Perhaps the clearest indication of Jüri Reinvere’s international standing is the commissions and world premieres he has received from orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Bamberg Symphony. World-renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Paavo Järvi, Franz Welser-Möst, Pablo Heras-Casado, Manfred Honeck and Pietari Inkinen, along with many leading instrumentalists, have performed and praised his music. In 2025, Reinvere was named Composer of the Year at the OPUS Klassik awards. His writing has also earned him recognition, including the Enn Soosaar Award for Ethical Essay Writing in 2016 and the Estonian newspaper Postimees’s Opinion Leader of the Year award in 2023.

TampereRaw had the pleasure and good fortune of getting to know Jüri Reinvere at the Usedom Music Festival in 2025. The festival showcases music from the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, breaking down geographical, historical and cultural barriers. Reinvere has appeared at the festival not only as a composer but also as an essayist, lecturer and panellist. He played a significant role in making TampereRaw’s concert possible and in bringing Finnish music to international audiences.

Jüri Reinvere describes his clarinet quartet as follows:

“After composing large-scale orchestral works, it was important for me to return to chamber music. The suggestion came from pianist Elena Bashkirova, who asked me to write a piece for the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival using the same instrumentation as Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Although the instrumentation is the same, the form and structure follow entirely different paths from Messiaen’s quartet. The single-movement composition is divided into several sections, with numerous changes of tempo. A slow introduction presents chordal material in the piano and linear material in the other instruments, which is developed extensively in the following section. The same material returns in varied recapitulations of the introduction—a technique sometimes found within individual movements of Beethoven’s works, but which did not govern an entire composition in his time.

Each section of the quartet presents clear contrasts: stillness and movement, lines and chords, airy figuration and lyrical melody. And, of course, the piano and the three melodic instruments interact in many different ways, including unconventional combinations, such as when the strings provide chordal accompaniment to a melodic line played in unison by both hands of the piano. This is precisely what defines chamber music: the close interplay of instrumental constellations, conceptually united by the material itself. In the coda, these opposing principles converge as the piano chords break free from their earlier stasis and set things in motion, while the melodic instruments open out.”

Founded in 2001, TampereRaw has specialised in new Finnish concert music throughout its quarter-century career. The ensemble has collaborated extensively with Finland’s leading contemporary composers and sees championing emerging composers and nurturing a new generation of versatile musicians as central to its mission.

TampereRaw regularly commissions new music and gives world premieres of works dedicated to the ensemble. Collaboration across art forms has also always been integral to its work. TampereRaw readily engages with challenging social issues and is always willing to explore new ways of working. In 2021, the ensemble received the Madetoja Foundation’s recognition award for its contribution to new Finnish concert music.

The ensemble’s violinist Anna Angervo, who holds a Master’s degree in Administrative Sciences, is responsible for TampereRaw’s artistic planning and activities.

Heili Hannikainen graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 2008 with a Master of Music degree in viola and Baroque viola, achieving excellent grades. From 2004 to 2007, she was Principal Viola of the Vaasa City Orchestra. Since 2008, she has been a violist with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, TampereRaw and the FINESTre String Quartet, while also appearing as a soloist. Petri Nieminen’s Beasts of War, to be performed at TampereRaw’s The Beginning of Time concert, was commissioned by Heili Hannikainen and Maija Juuti.

Maija Juuti began playing the cello at the age of four at the East Helsinki Music Institute under Csaba Szilvay. She continued her studies at the Sibelius Academy, progressing from its Junior Academy to the solo performance department, where she graduated with a Master of Music degree in 2005. Her teachers at the Academy included Erkki Rautio, Risto Poutanen and Jan-Erik Gustafsson.

In 2004–2005, Juuti studied at IMMA (International Menuhin Music School) in Switzerland. She has been a cellist with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra since autumn 2005 and was a finalist in the Turku Cello Competition in 2006. Chamber music has always been close to Maija’s heart. She has performed extensively in various ensembles, in recent years most often with TampereRaw and the string quartet Terapia q.

Oskari Hanhikoski is a double bassist originally from Kaustinen. He studied at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and completed his master’s studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. In spring 2016, he studied privately in Canada under the guidance of his idol, Joel Quarrington. His other influential teachers have included Oskari Hannula, Marko Mikkola, Rinat Ibragimov and Luis Cabrera. Oskari has worked with numerous Finnish orchestras. He is currently Co-Principal Double Bass of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and teaches on Näppäri courses.

Anna Angervo began her musical education at the West Helsinki Music Institute and went on to study violin at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. She has played with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra since 1993 and is a founding member and Executive Director of the contemporary music ensemble TampereRaw. Both Angervo and TampereRaw have commissioned and premiered numerous Finnish works. In recognition of its contribution to Finnish contemporary music, the ensemble received the Madetoja Award in 2021. Angervo plays second violin in the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. She began studying administrative sciences at the University of Vaasa in 2021 and graduated with a master’s degree in summer 2026. Her dream is to champion music and the arts, carrying their message into a changing world amid social upheaval.

Violinist and Doctor of Music Eeva Oksala is a versatile performer, soloist and chamber musician, as well as Senior Lecturer in Violin and Research Studies at Jamk University of Applied Sciences. Oksala began playing the violin at the age of four under the guidance of her grandfather, Simo Oksala, and continued her studies at Tampere Conservatoire and the Sibelius Academy with Professors Mi-Kyung Lee and Kaija Saarikettu.

In her artistic doctorate, completed in 2018, Oksala explored musicians’ identities as performers and the factors that shape their development. The five-concert series forming part of the degree centred on violin and chamber music repertoire influenced by Eastern European folk music. In her written thesis, Kohtaamispisteessä – Kohti uudenlaista esiintyjyyttä (At the Meeting Point – Towards a New Approach to Performance), Oksala examined, in particular, how working across musical genres, theatre and improvisation influenced her understanding of herself as a performer. She has also given world premieres of new Finnish violin music, including Timo Alakotila’s fourth violin concerto, Between Three Worlds, in 2018 and Timo Hietala’s violin concerto Polar Fire in 2025, both as soloist with the Helsinki Police Symphonic Band. The latter performance was also broadcast by Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

A central part of Oksala’s artistic work is the ensemble Finngips, inspired by Eastern European Romani music and the virtuoso tradition. She has performed at numerous festivals in Finland and abroad and appeared in leading roles in major music theatre productions. In summer 2026, Oksala played the lead in Viulunsoittaja, a new play staged at Nokia Summer Theatre.

Janne Pesonen is a founding member of TampereRaw. He considers it a great privilege to collaborate with composers of our time, from established professionals to promising talents just beginning their careers. For Janne, working with new music provides the ideal counterbalance and complement to his main role in the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. Playing in smaller ensembles with skilled, motivated colleagues, tackling the challenges of intriguing new works and exploring their essence, keeps the spark alive and prevents him from getting stuck in a rut, even after decades as a professional musician. His proudest recent achievement, however, is earning the HK3 qualification in working dog search trials with his dog Budvar.

Pianist Ville Hautakangas has been the pianist of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra since 2002. He has taught piano and worked as an accompanist at Tampere Conservatoire and Tampere University of Applied Sciences since 2006, and has been TampereRaw’s pianist since 2010.

Hautakangas works closely with contemporary composers. His solo album 12 Premieres – Contemporary Finnish Piano Music (ALBA Records) features new piano works written for him by 12 composers. The album received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Classical Emma Award at the 2024 Emma Gala. Alongside his work as a pianist and teacher, Hautakangas also works as a photographer.