Composer

Leading Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski takes an innovative approach to contemporary chamber music, blending intricate textures and bold sonic explorations. Academy instrumentalists bring her distinctive sound to life.

EPSG:4326

Composer In Residence: Academy Manson Ensemble

Royal Academy of Music

Philip Cashian offers a unique glimpse into the creative world of composer Lotta Wennäkoski.

Composer In Residence: In Conversation

Composer in Residence: Lotta Wennäkoski

Graduate soloist Iveri Kekenadze, from the Malmö Academy of Music, performs Camille Saint-Saën's playful Piano Concerto No. 2 – a masterpiece that brings to life the entire tonal range of the piano.

Mendelssohn's femma

Malmö Concert Hall

Musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra perform chamber music centering around the harp, from Fauré to Pierné, from Debussy to Yun.

Close-up: The harp takes centre stage

The Concertgebouw

Join us at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, 10 November 2024, at 7:30 pm for an unforgettable evening as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts a captivating program featuring the works of Sibelius and Lindberg. This concert marks a significant moment in the Philharmonia's Nordic Soundscapes series, showcasing the rich musical heritage of Finland.

The evening will commence with Lotta Wennäkoski's "Flounce," a piece known for its joyful and imaginative spirit, composed for the Last Night of the Proms in 2017. Following this, Lawrence Power, one of today's leading viola players, will give the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg's new Viola Concerto, a testament to the enduring friendship and creative collaboration between Salonen and Lindberg since their student days.

The highlight of the concert will be Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 1, a masterpiece that captures the vast Nordic landscapes through its sweeping melodies and the haunting opening clarinet solo, leading to the intense energy of the finale. This symphony is not only a favorite among classical music enthusiasts but also serves as an excellent introduction to Sibelius's distinctive musical voice for newcomers.

This event is part of the Nordic Soundscapes series, and attendees have the opportunity to enhance their experience with Nordic Soundscapes Passes, offering great seats for every London event in the series, along with exclusive perks like a series magazine signed by Santtu and an invitation to drinks on the opening night.

Tickets are priced between £10 and £70, with priority booking available for Friends of the Philharmonia. General booking opens at 10 am on Tuesday, 23 April. Don't miss this opportunity to witness a remarkable performance that bridges the past and present of Finnish music, conducted by the esteemed Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Salonen conducts Sibelius and Lindberg

Royal Festival Hall

The Philharmonia Orchestra’s former Principal Conductor returns to conduct three works by fellow Finns as part of the orchestra’s Nordic Soundscapes series.

Salonen Conducts Sibelius & Lindberg

Southbank Centre

John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

MediaCityUK

A slow musical procession leads us through the gate into one of Bruckner’s ‘cathedrals of sound’, his Fifth Symphony. This music is as spacious and reverential as a place of worship. Fear not, there are no hard pews to sit on here as Bruckner’s sound world is warm and enveloping. Sibelius also invites us into his world of Nordic impressionism with En Saga, based on Northern legends and myths. This symphonic poem evokes the rugged beauty and atmosphere of Finland with its sweeping vistas. Lotta Wennäkoski honours this in her own work Verdigris. Composers, she suggests, write new layers on music history, hence she immerses in Sibelius’s music in amidst her own, creating a patina, the blue-green verdigris of the title.

Nordic Noir

The Bridgewater Hall

The warmth of Brahms’ third symphony has made it a favourite of many concertgoers. His friend Clara Schumann wrote: “Each movement is a jewel! I could not tell you which I loved most.”  A century earlier, Carl Philip Emanuel Bach composed his emotional and imaginative flute concerto – complete with stormy, calm, angry, and joyous moods, with its dazzling melodies requiring breath-defying skills. Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski’s overture is an exciting exploration of musical buoyancy, rising and falling both in volume and intensity. 

Brahms' Symphony No. 3

Winspear Centre

Tonight's concert by NEC Philharmonia and Hugh Wolff includes Of Footprints and Light by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski, Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony and a concerto performed by the winner of the Concerto Competition.

NEC Philharmonia + Hugh Wolff: Wennäkoski, Mendelssohn

New England Conservatory

The Eufonie Festival aims to popularize the cultural heritage of most countries known today as Central and Eastern Europe: from the Balkans, through Romania and Austria, the Visegrad Group countries, Ukraine and Belarus, to the Baltic States.

BBC Symphony Orchestra: Eufonie Festival, Warsaw

National Philharmonic

A sultry flute, a shower of sparks, a flash of light and a sensuous, sumptuous wave of pure emotion. In the years before World War One, Debussy and Stravinsky transformed the way we listen: inventing musical colours that dazzled, startled and seduced. Debussy’s ravishing Prélude and Stravinsky’s Firebird open and close a concert filled with fantastic stories and sounds.

The Faun and the Firebird

Barbican Centre

Beginning as students at a summer music camp before they were even teenagers, the members of the Danish String Quartet have an extensive history of musical collaboration. For their third UMS appearance, they bring their Doppelgänger project, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project in which four composers create new works in response to a masterwork by Franz Schubert. In this program, they pair Schubert’s famous “Death and the Maiden” quartet with Pige (Danish for “girl”) — a new work by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski, who has been praised for her mastery of color and musical textures.

Danish String Quartet: Doppelgänger

University of Michigan

When Mason Bates composed his Piano Concerto, he repeated a simple mantra to himself: <em>Let the soloist shine</em>. Bates could not have chosen a better partner for this SF Symphony Co-Commission and West Coast Premiere than the astoundingly dexterous pianist Daniil Trifonov. Led by Ruth Reinhardt in her SF Symphony debut, the program also includes Lotta Wennäkoski’s <em>Helsinki Variations</em> and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 5, a work beloved for its natural warmth, singing melodies, and beautiful pastoral scenes

Daniil Trifonov plays Mason Bates

Davies Symphony Hall

The dazzlingly gifted Danish String Quartet returns for its second Berkeley concert this season, pairing a Schubert string quartet with a newly commissioned work as part of it Doppelgänger project, a four-season initiative co-commissioned by Cal Performances. Schubert’s thrillin "Death and the Maiden" quartet, one of the pillars of chamber music repertoire, is matched here with its musical twin, a new quartet by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski —“a composer with ideas and a distinctive way of voicing them” "The Guardian"—whose music combines a melodic sensibility with percussive techniques and timbres.

Chamber Music: Danish String Quartet

University of California, Berkeley

BNY Classics showcases unforgettable performances by your Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, featuring timeless masterpieces, thrilling premieres, and renowned guest artists.

Sibelius' Second

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts

An “energetic pulse” and “a feeling of space” were Lotta Wennäkoski’s two goals as she penned Flounce, and both ideas weave throughout this powerful program. Dima Slobodeniouk joins the SLSO for the first time, leading the orchestra in invigorating performances of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, a true display of both sweet nostalgia and soul-shattering passion. Wu Wei plays a stunning concerto on the sheng, a mouth organ and one of the oldest-known Chinese instruments, dating back more than 3,000 years.

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth

Powell Hall

Every story has to start somewhere, and in this remarkable choral symphony the young Sibelius retells Finland’s most ancient poem, the Kalevala. This is Sibelius in the raw: the tragedy of a young hero and a love more terrible than war, told in music of operatic power. So gather round as Robin Ticciati, a full chorus and two star singers retell the story tonight. Lotta Wennäkoski – one of modern Finland’s most original young voices – has something new to add, too.

Voices from Finland

The Grammy-nominated Danish String Quartet joins the Danish National Girls’ Choir in combining old traditions and new music. They premiere the Stanford Live co-commission by composer and Stanford alumnus David Lang, titled in wildness, a work about the relationship between humans and mother earth. The first half of the program features folksongs and new music by American and Nordic women composers.

Danish String Quartet and Danish National Girls’ Choir

Stanford University

Experience a captivating journey through sound and story as the acclaimed Danish String Quartet joins forces with the radiant Danish National Girls’ Choir. Blending contemporary works, reimagined classics, and Nordic folk traditions, this program explores themes of memory, identity, and our bond with the natural world.

Danish String Quartet Danish National Girls’s Choir

Church of the Epiphany

Clarinetist Lauri Sallinen is known for breaking down barriers between the arts. The concert, conducted by Izabele Jankauzkaiten, will feature no fewer than six works, including Lotta Wennäkoski's Ele.

Composer

Lotta Wennäkoski

Events

Upcoming events

16 - 18 Jan, 2026

Sibelius' Second · Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

24 - 25 Jan, 2026

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth · St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Mar 25, 2026

Voices from Finland · London Philharmonic Orchestra

Apr 15, 2026

Danish String Quartet and Danish National Girls’ Choir · Stanford Live

Apr 18, 2026

Danish String Quartet Danish National Girls’s Choir · Washington Performing Arts

Past events

Nov 27, 2025

Composer In Residence: Academy Manson Ensemble · Royal Academy of Music

Nov 27, 2025

Composer In Residence: In Conversation · Royal Academy of Music

About

Lotta Wennäkoski hasn't added a bio