Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has died age 70
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has died at age 70 from complications arising from brain cancer.
In a post shared on Facebook, her family revealed that Saariaho “slept away peacefully in her own bed, at home in Paris.” Despite enjoying a prolific and successful career, Saariaho initially struggled to get her foot in the door.
When she arrived at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, several professors refused to teach her because she was “a pretty woman who would soon be married and they didn’t want to waste their time”. She told NPR last year, “When I think about it, it’s a pity, but that’s how that period was. At some point, I thought, ‘Well that’s what they say and that’s what they think, but I’m going to write my music and I will find my way.'”
The composer was consistently determined, stating, “I never became a composer because I thought that I’m so fantastic, and my ideas are so fantastic and the whole world needs to hear them.”
“I loved music so much that I felt that I’m not skilled enough, I will never be,” she added. “I had a feeling that I must not be shy, I must be brave enough to be able to do it [write music], and that was the only worthy way of living my life.”
Saariaho’s most recent work was the 2018 opera Innocence, which premiered in the United Kingdom earlier this year. The opera, which has received widespread critical acclaim, will be performed at the Met between 2025 and 2026.
Highly respected in her field, Saariaho was named the greatest living composer in 2019 via a BBC Music Magazine panel.
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