Mikko Heiniö

Endorsing equality in classical music in artistically meaningful and organic ways is no small endeavour. Yet, this was the very goal undertaken last weekend at Musequal Festival* in Janakkala, circa hundred kilometres north from Helsinki.

The third symphony by Mikko Heiniö is premiered in Turku in May 18. While celebrating his 70th birthday, it nevertheless looks to the future. His work as a composer continues, and he has just finished writing a new opera, his fourth.

Guitarists are unusually keen to commission new compositions. The guitarist, composer and audience all benefit, because the guitar, being a popular instrument, lowers the threshold to listening to new music. Finnish guitarists Petri Kumela, Otto Tolonen and Patrik Kleemola rank among the most active champions of new guitar repertoire.

"The 'Finnish element' - if indeed it even exists in the empirical sense - is no unique property; it is the sum of numerous factors each weighted in a different way", writes Mikko Heiniö in his analytical article in FMQ 2/1992.