Aulis Sallinen

Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen at the Academic Bookstore in Helsinki, Finland, in 2009
Born	(1935-05-09) 9 May 1935 (age 81)
Occupation	composer
Known for	symphonies opera
Notable work	Operas Ratsumies (The Horseman) and Punainen Viiva (The red Line)

Aulis Sallinen (born 9 April 1935) is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written 6 operas, 8 symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn and English horn as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera Ratsumies (The Horseman).

Sallinen was born in Salmi. During his childhood the family moved several times for his father's work, and during Evacuation of Finnish Karelia in 1944 the family relocated in Uusikaupunki, where Aulis Sallinen attended his schools.

His first instruments were violin and piano. He would play both jazz and classical music. He was known to be extremely creative, and spent much time during his teenage years improvising. After a while, he began writing his ideas down on paper, and began to do serious composition. He attended the Sibelius Academy of Music, and studied with a number of prestigious teachers such as Aarre Merikanto and Joonas Kokkonen.

After graduating, Sallinen took a position as composition teacher at the Sibelius Academy, and continued composing. One of his prominent student was the Austrian born Finnish composer Herman Rechberger. In his mid 20s, he was put on the board of directors of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He became chairman of the board of Finnish Composers ten years later. Though he was a known teacher and was on many boards of directors, his compositions were not particularly noted until he was made "Professor of Arts for Life" by the Finnish government, giving him money so he could focus more on composition.