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Osmo Tapio Räihälä

Osmo Tapio Räihälä, a Finnish composer was born in Suomussalmi, Northern Finland, on 15th January 1964. He studied musicology in the Turku and Helsinki Universities, gaining a BA degree in 1996. As a composer he is mainly an autodidact, but had private lessons with Harri Vuori from 1992 to 1994. Räihälä has written mostly instrumental chamber music but has in recent years widened his output to music for symphony orchestra. Räihälä’s music has been widely performed in his home country and since the late 1990’s even on foreign soil, i.e. in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and the Czech Republic, apart from other Scandinavian countries.

Räihälä’s best-known works include the percussion quintet Chadwick Drive (1997), two string quartets (1994, 2000), Rampant (1997) for two solo violins, Damballa (2000) for flute, oboe, clarinet and violin as well as the Mallet Concerto (1999) and Håkan en Belgique(2002), a concerto for the viola. Räihälä has co-operated with the Uusinta Chamber Ensemble which he formed in 1998 with his composer colleagues.

Räihälä was a relatively late beginner and his style is still taking its shape. This means there are works like Spinoza’s Web (1996) for clarinet, horn and violin, which is strictly structured with a help of computer and related in style to the post-war serialism, as well as easily approachable works on border of tonality, like the afore mentioned viola concerto or the Stoa Trilogy (2002) for violin and piano.

More information is available at http://www.raihala.com

• Spinozan verkko (1996)