The philosophy of a woman composer: "I try to strike a balance between intellect and feeling. I want to create this balance to probe greater depths. I want to project existential musical experiences. Our musical education begins when our mothers sing lullabies to us. As a composer, I want to proceed from this music, the first I heard in my life. I don't want to be élitist." Born in Helsinki in 1952 and resident in Paris since 1982, Kaija Saariaho’s music takes us into the realms of dreams and the imagination. She draws inspiration from the wonders of nature – from the aurora borealis, water lilies, and crystals. She makes use of scientific phenomena and constantly crosses over to other art forms – to painting, which she herself initially studied after high school, and to literature, cinema, and video art. Her secret: "Music is my way of approaching the divine."
 As LUCERNE FESTIVAL's composer-in-residence, Kaija Saariaho will present music spanning two-and-a-half decades, from her first successful piece, Lichtbogen (1986), which works with spectral analysis, to her most recent orchestral work, Laterna Magica, a tribute to the great film director Ingmar Bergman. The main emphasis will fall on her compositions with live electronics – as befits the main focus of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY, which will devote several concerts to her music.
 Like her fellow composer Jörg Widmann, Kaija Saariaho is an unconventional musician who sought and found her own distinctive path beyond schools and doctrines. She fears neither consonant euphony nor big emotions: "People often find my music too emotional," she points out, "but we in Europe still have different cultures. Art always has an emotional background, and anyone who tries to hide it has, to my way of thinking, a sizable problem."

Click here for a detailed biography of Kaija Saariaho.