17 Facts About Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara's father Eino Alfred Rautavaara was an opera singer and cantor, and his mother Elsa Katariina Rautavaara was a doctor.

Einojuhani Rautavaara's father died when Einojuhani was 10 years old, with his mother dying less than 6 years later.

Einojuhani Rautavaara went to live with his aunt Hilja Helena Teraskeli in the city of Turku, where he began taking formal piano lessons at the age of 17.

Einojuhani Rautavaara attended the University of Helsinki to study piano and musicology, and eventually studied composition at the Sibelius Academy under Aarre Merikanto from 1948 to 1952.

Einojuhani Rautavaara served as a non-tenured teacher at the Sibelius Academy from 1957 to 1959, music archivist of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1959 to 1961, rector of the Kapyla Music Institute in Helsinki from 1965 to 1966, tenured teacher at the Sibelius Academy from 1966 to 1976, artist professor from 1971 to 1976, and professor of composition at the Sibelius Academy from 1976 to 1990.

Einojuhani Rautavaara married Heidi Maria "Mariaheidi" Suovanen, an actress, in 1959.

Einojuhani Rautavaara was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Music in 1985.

Einojuhani Rautavaara died on 27 July 2016 in Helsinki from complications of hip surgery.

Einojuhani Rautavaara was a prolific composer and wrote in a variety of forms and styles.

Einojuhani Rautavaara's most important works from the period are the Third and Fourth Symphony, and the opera Kaivos, which saw only a television production in 1963, but was a source of material for the string orchestra pieces Canto I and Canto II, and for the Third String Quartet.

Einojuhani Rautavaara himself referred to the Third as the "Bruckner symphony".

The libretto, written by Einojuhani Rautavaara himself, tells the story of a 13th-century Bishop of Finland as experienced by the protagonist himself, again using Kalevala motifs.

Einojuhani Rautavaara's later works include the orchestral works Book of Visions, Manhattan Trilogy and Before the Icons, which is an expanded version of his early piano work Icons.

In 2011 Einojuhani Rautavaara completed two larger-scale compositions: Missa a Cappella and a work for string orchestra, Into the Heart of Light, which premiered in September 2012.

Einojuhani Rautavaara did not live to see the first opera stage premiere of Kaivos, the uncensored version, which took place 21 October 2016 in Budapest, Hungary.

The majority of Einojuhani Rautavaara's works have been recorded by Ondine.

An album of vocal works called "Einojuhani Rautavaara Songs" was recorded by the Swedish label BIS Records.