Sebastian Hilli

"Sebastian Hilli’s 'confluence / divergence', a 30-minute work for solo guitar and small ensemble sweeps the listener straight into a breath-taking flow of imaginative sounds, produced through a variety of unconventional playing techniques."

"The element of surprise and freedom that improvisation offers remains to this day present in my music and in the way it is experienced."

The Time of Music 2017 festival in Viitasaari took a broad-based look at the theme of Art & Autonomy. There was also discussion about social bubbles within the contemporary music culture. Yet bubbles too can be looked at from various perspectives, writes Merja Hottinen.

Finland’s largest contemporary music event, Musica nova Helsinki, isn’t the product of one person’s vision, or even one organisation’s. It is an ecosystem that draws and depends upon most of Helsinki’s major musical institutions, which might explain why the German conductor André de Ridder was an astute choice to be the festival’s new artistic director.

Being a freelance composer is much like being an entrepreneur – for one thing, your career development is entirely in your own hands. “You cannot wait and expect someone else to do it for you,” says composer Sebastian Hilli.