The musical career of the multitalented finish composer, pianist and conductor Tuomas Turriago (1979) has been versatile to the utmost, and the main motivator has been a huge passion for music, regardless of instrument, style or genre. He started playing the piano at the age of 7 and by the age of 9 he was also composing. His debut as a soloist of an orchestra was at the age of 11, playing Mozart A-major concerto K488, with the Jyväskylä Orchestra. At 13 he won first prize in the interscandinavian piano competition in Kil, Sweden and at 22 he won second prize in the finnish national Jyväskylä Piano Competition. He embarked on a career focused on chamber music, and has worked as a lecturer in collaborating piano at Tampere Music Academy/Tampere University of Applied Sciences since 2004 and as chamber music and sight-reading teacher at the Sibelius Academy since 2019. He has also taught many master classes. He has been soloist of various finnish orchestras and has performed at numerous music festivals in Finland and all over Europe, the US, Colombia, Near East and Far East. He has championed contemporary music as a pianist and also as a conductor, and has premiered numerous compositions by, eg, Cecilia Damström, Minna Leinonen, Maria Kallionpää, Paavo Heininen, Mikko Heiniö ja Olli Virtaperko.

Alongside his career as a pianist, he has also been a prolific composer, with 49 works to date, including two chamber operas, two piano sonatas, numerous chamber sonatas for various instruments, two string quartets and a symphony for strings. He has been published by Fennica Gehrman and Uusinta Kustannus. His new Trumpet Concerto commissioned by Tampere Filharmonic Orchestra and Deutsche Grammophon -artist Pacho Flores will be premiered 5.4.2024.

Since 2010 Tuomas Turriago has been a regular conductor of TampereRaw and Tampere Music Academy. Also, Tuomas Turriago is a founding member and was conductor of Tampere Chamber Opera Association. In his ever-increasing activity as a conductor he has performed also with Vaasa, Seinäjoki and Mikkeli City Orchestras, Tampere Chamber and the Tampere Philharmonic Brass. Flexible and versatile as he is with styles, Turriago conducted also the very successful performances of the musical Hair at the Tampere Theatre Festival in 2019.

Tuomas Turriago has recorded for Alba and Pilfink –labels.

He was one of the candidates for the Finnish Publishers Association Composer of the Year Prize and has received numerous grants from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and Pro Musica Foundation.

www.tuomasturriago.com

photo Ville Hautakangas