SEBASTIAN HILLI’S COMPOSER PORTRAIT CONCERT

An important Composer Portrait Concert of young Finnish talent Sebastian Hilli (b. 1990) on August 21st at the Helsinki Music Centre is built around the three chamber pieces in his Paraphrase cycle, utilizing and overlapping elements of different musics, composers and performers such as John Coltrane, free jazz, acid house, Sibelius or Gesualdo.

Hilli’s works have in common the composer’s fascination with structure, dynamism and carefully crafted details. Throughout, his music is characterized by complex woven textures and nuanced sonorities, long-span processes and a flair for extra-musical topics. Fascinated by the intensity of music as the focal point of his musical thinking, his works always emerge from the question of how to achieve this in various ways. Hilli accomplishes this in both extremes – in energetic textures moving in fast pace and in quiet and concentrated moments. The wide range of characters in his works demonstrate the composer’s emotional and expressional versatility and speaks of his curiosity of always seeking for new ways of expression.

All the compositions in the program have been finished during 2015–16. Welcome to this major event not to be missed!