Juho Laitinen
(b. 1977) is a many-sided member of the music community, performing, teaching, writing and
curating. He performs as a soloist and chamber musician,
teaches and studies at Sibelius Academy, makes recordings for the
Finnish Broadcasting Company, writes for various music publications and serves as artistic director at
Kallio New Music Days and the
Tulkinnanvaraista recital series.
Juho has a particular interest in the traditions of American and
European modernism, avant-garde and experimental new music. His
repertoire
includes works by Cage, Scelsi, Stockhausen and Xenakis.
Microtonal and electroacoustic music as well as improvisation are among
his key interests. In 2011 he released his
first solo cd with modernist and experimental solo works alongside with duo improvisations.
Juho often
works with jazz musicians and currently plays with the band of
Pepa Päivinen. He also performs on the Baroque cello and plays some classical music from the Near East as well as
fado. Juho pursues his interest in the
possibilities of electronic sound manipulation with Mikko Hassinen in
Sound Dentistry.
Among the works he has
commissioned and premiered are
On Air-Line for cello, electronics and big band by Riikka Talvitie,
Boost for
cello and analog synthesizer, in extended just intonation, by
Juhani Nuorvala and
Dead Man Theme for electric cello and electronics by Maija Hynninen. Recently some new works were written for a
virtual rhythmicon that he programmed.
He received his initial training at Turku Conservatory and
Royal College of Music in London and additionally in Rome and New York, with Timo Hanhinen,
Jérôme Pernoo and
Petr Kotik
as his main mentors. Currently he is working towards a doctorate at
Sibelius Academy with 20th century experimental cello music as his
topic. In the related five large-scale recitals he performs music
by Feldman, Lucier, Meriläinen and Andriessen as well
as works of his own.
In 2009–10 Juho was the editor for
Amfion, an online magazine for classical music, and has also written for
Rondo and Finaali magazines. Since 2009 he teaches at Sibelius Academy.
Juho is extremely grateful for the support of his artistic pursuits given by Finnish
Cultural Foundation, Kordelin Foundation, Finnish Arts Council, National Performing Arts Research Academy, Finnish
Performing Music Promotion Center, Lehtinen Foundation, Finnish Composers' Union, Foundation for
Promotion of Finnish Music, the city of Helsinki and Sibelius Academy.