Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) is born and raised in London. Already at the age of five he started playing the piano and composing. Still young he won a composer’s award and then got a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. During his studies he earned some extra money on accompanying dancers of ballet and jazz. Later he founded a music department at London School of Contemporary Dance, where he worked together with many choreographers.
Finnissy was a member and an artistic manager of the ensemble Suoraan from the early seventies, and later in the ensemble Ixion in 1987. Besides playing the piano, he also worked as a conductor. In the eighties, he was an active member in the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), and between 1990 and 1996 he was head of this organization. Apart from this, he is an acclaimed teacher in composition.
Finnissy is considered a prominent figure in the New Complexity Movement, even though he himself prefers not to be classified as such. He has visited Norway several times, the latest visit being the Borealis Festival in Bergen during March this year.
A number of his works are more or less explicitly political. His idea is that music can not be separated from its social context and that it to a certain extent is political. Finnissy is also known for rewriting and incorporating classical composers from the Romantic period. It is in this tradition that the audience of Ultima will meet Michael Finnissy’s main piece: He has completed the unfinished Grieg piano quintet which will be performed by the Cikada string quartet.