Info

Biography

After a brief career in physics, American-born composer Timothy Page left the U.S. for Helsinki, Finland on a Fulbright grant to study composition at the Sibelius Academy. He wound up putting down roots, continuing his studies from 2001-2008 with Veli-Matti Puumala, and firmly establishing himself in Finland’s contemporary music scene. Page’s body of work is widely varied stylistically, reflecting interests in a broad range of musical idioms, and he savours opportunities to explore personally untrodden territory from piece to piece. His compositions have been performed extensively in Finland and internationally, earning a number of distinctions. Page also lectures in harmony at the Sibelius Academy.

“My overall endeavour in composing navigates between three general interests in music making: seeking and personalizing the unfamiliar, re-imagining and reprocessing elements already close to me, and raising questions regarding contemporary concert music practice. The first of these currently has me investigating evolution of timbre and sound mass, elasticity of time perception, and discontinuity — all to some degree on display in works such as Torsion (2007) for orchestra, Cusp (2009) for chamber orchestra, and Curl (2010) for harp, flute, and electronics. The second interest has led to works like Kierros (2007) for viola, piano, and bass clarinet, which combines Balkan rhythm and gesture with jazz harmony and minimalist form. Suite Capsula (2007) for two guitarists, on the other hand, reflects a conceptual interest in style and context, containing thematic elements that are reincarnated in widely differing tonal languages from movement to movement. In a similar vein is Lovers of Mankind (2009), my first opera (co-written with Sami Klemola), which unapologetically weaves virtuoso rock-guitar riffs and swing into spectral and chromatic harmonic settings. Both of the latter works have a site-specific aspect, taking on somewhat of an anarchic thrust for example in Finland, where new music culture by and large has yet to embrace the postmodern.”

-Timothy Page