Finnish Cellist & Composer
Some of the top moments of my career
Music Educator (AMK), major: cello
Graduated as a cello teacher from Turku AMK with Erkki Lahesmaa and Timo Hanhinen as my teachers.
Diploma from Turku AMK
For actively searching for new ways to work in the department of music by taking part in cross-disciplinary and international projects.
Supplementary studies in musicology
Included a bachelor’s thesis where I researched nature sounds used on Moonsorrow’s Verisäkeet album.
Master in Contemporary Performance and Composition
Each semester was spent in four different universities in Tallinn, Stockholm, Lyon and Hamburg. The studies consisted of new music performance and composition, programming, electronic and electroacoustic music, music history and improvisation. My teachers included Bill Brunson, Per Mårtensson, Mattias Sköld, Taavi Kerikmäe, Helena Tulve, Michele Tadini, Johannes Kreidler, Alexander Schubert and Georg Hajdu.
Emma Nomination for album with Swallow the Sun “When a Shadow is Forced into the Light”
Played cello on the album.
Taike: Regional grant
6 month working grant
Commission for Forssa 100 years
“Elementtejä Forssasta” for orchestra and choir commissioned by Terhi Karhumäki from Lounais-Häme Music School, in honour of Forssa 100 years celebrations.
Sharing the beauty of music through cello and composition
I’m a cellist and composer. My music making is motivated by emotions, aesthetics both beautiful and harsh, energy, and cross-border experimentality. My work consists of cello playing, composition, theatre productions, recordings, programming and teaching. I enjoy giving the audience a chance to interact with my works and performances.
In addition to playing the acoustic cello, I expand its’ expressional capabilities through the use of live electronics, most notably Max/MSP. Max/MSP is a visual programming tool that can be used to control sound, video and even light! The old joke goes: “A teacher told their students that Max/MSP is capable of doing everything except making coffee. The next lesson one of the students shows up with a Max/MSP patch capable of making coffee.”
Why do I want to focus both on playing the cello and composing on a high level? I think both of them give so much to one another: when I perform with the cello, I also get familiar with more repertoire, and more closely than I would just analysing a score on paper. On the other hand, by having the mindset of a composer, I better understand what composers’ mean with what they write, and it has also helped me to understand structures behind compositions: it is extremely important not only to “sound good”, but to also understand why different sections follow each other within a piece in the way they do.
Mit inniger Empfindung
”Teemu Mastovaara’s Mit inniger Empfindung (for violin, cello, percussion, piano, gayageum, painter and electronics) gleefully combined Schumann, rock music, Jackson Pollock, Monet, tape music, and Korean zither into a strange mish-mash of concert experiences that shifted gears at breakneck speed. One moment we were listening to a lovely piano trio, the next we were at a rock gig. The whiplash-fast way the piece changed pace contrasted surreally with the static experience of listening to a classical concert”
James Black, Seismograf.org, 7th October 2019
“Det blir en riktig cross-over upplevelse med spröda stråkförsedda klassiska partier, en ettrig pianodel och ett crescendo i form av tungt riffande rock. Lägg därtill det exotiska knäppandet från Youjin Seongs märkliga stränginstument och du har ett stycke som smeker, slår och skakar om."
Anders Sandlund, Piteå-Tidningen, 29th August 2019
Collaborators and supporters
