The Sound of Now: TampereRaw – Wonderful Life

Eero Saunamäki is a pioneering recorder player, saxophonist, and singer. He is a versatile concert artist as well as the Executive Director and one of the Artistic Directors of the BRQ Vantaa Festival, which focuses on early music. Saunamäki also teaches at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki.

He has appeared as a soloist with more than ten symphony orchestras on both recorder and saxophone, served as a leader in orchestras, and collaborated with several renowned conductors. Among the dozens of commissioned works and world premieres he has performed are six concertos, including Kalevi Aho’s Recorder Concerto, which Saunamäki has recorded for BIS Records.

Saunamäki is also an active chamber musician who has performed widely at Finnish festivals and abroad. In the Aava Saxophone Quartet he plays baritone saxophone, and in addition he collaborates as a recorder player with numerous musicians in both contemporary and early music. In rhythm music ensembles, Saunamäki works as both a vocalist and instrumentalist.

His recorder playing can be heard not only on recordings but also in an Oscar-nominated film, various computer and mobile games, as part of a cruise ship’s soundscape, and on his own YouTube channel. Beyond the Sibelius Academy, his pedagogical work has included teaching at the Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg, the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, TAMK, and the University of Jyväskylä.

Eero Saunamäki studied at the Sibelius Academy, the Pop & Jazz Conservatory, and the University of Helsinki. His career has been supported by numerous foundations and funds, and since 2024 he has worked as a freelance artist with grants awarded by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Violinist Anna Angervo studied at the West Helsinki Music Institute and at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (now Universität der Künste Berlin). She has been a member of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra since 1992 and also serves on its board. Angervo began her professional orchestral career with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1997 and became a permanent member of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998.

Angervo is a founding member, Artistic Director, and Executive Director of TampereRaw. Through the ensemble, she has commissioned and premiered numerous works by Finnish contemporary composers. She is further expanding her expertise in the Master’s Programme in Administrative Sciences and Public Law at the University of Vaasa, with the aim of promoting culture, the arts, and new music also from administrative and societal perspectives.

Alongside her studies, Angervo has held long-term substitute positions with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta. The planning of The Sound of Time concert series in collaboration with the Tampere Hall production team represents the fulfilment of a long-held dream for her.

Founded in 2001, TampereRaw has, over the course of its more than twenty-year career, specialised particularly in new Finnish concert music. The ensemble has collaborated extensively with Finland’s leading contemporary composers and considers it a central part of its mission to highlight promising new talents and support the growth of a young and versatile generation of musicians.

TampereRaw regularly commissions new works and gives world premieres of pieces dedicated to the ensemble in its concerts. Cross-disciplinary collaboration with other art forms has also always played an integral role in the group’s work. TampereRaw does not shy away from tackling socially challenging themes and is always ready to explore new ways of working. In recognition of its contribution to advancing new Finnish concert music, the ensemble received the Madetoja Foundation Award in 2021.