Clarinetist Kari Kriikku wins 2009 Nordic Council Music Prize

This year’s Nordic Council Music Prize goes to Finnish classical clarinetist Kari Kriikku, who is also the Artistic Director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra.
      The prize is worth EUR 47,000 and will be presented during the Nordic Council's Session in Stockholm at the end of October.
      In a telephone interview Kriikku sounds delighted, saying that he is in cool company, as the Icelandic singer Björk has also won this prize.
     
At present, Kriikku is about as far from the Nordic region as one can get. He is in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, where he is to debut as a soloist on a tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, with Music Director Pietari Inkinen conducting.
      From New Zealand, Kriikku will come back home in order to play in Avanti!’s Summer Sounds Festival in Porvoo, whereafter he will continue to the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Eastern Finland.
      In September he is scheduled to perform in Australia, and in October in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
      ”A part of the prize will have to be put aside for my old age, since as a salary earner I am not paid any social security and pension contributions for the work I do abroad”, Kriikku points out.
     
The prize committee write in their appraisal:
      "Kari Kriikku is an extraordinary virtuoso on his instrument the clarinet. His performance is characterised by flexibility and a positive musician’s joy - he is a musician in the best sense of the word.”
      ”The committee does not mention Avanti! at all”, says the ensemble’s Artistic Director with some surprise. ”And yet it is an important part of my work”, he adds.
     
The nominations for the music prize included twelve Nordic candidates. Apart from Kriikku, Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and his band The Luomu Players were also among the nominees.
     
The theme for the Nordic Council’s Music Prize 2009 was to award individual performers or groups who experiment with new forms of expression across the various genres, or are pioneers within their genre with an innovative musical expression.
      The prize committee’s statement notes further:
      ”Kari Kriikku is a pioneering innovator of the solo concerto form, which has led to partnerships with most of the important contemporary composers, whose works he has then performed for the first time. As a chamber musician he has also explored other contemporary music forms apart from classical music.”
     
Right now, Kriikku is also playing contemporary music from Finnish composers.
      While in New Zealand, he will be performing clarinet concertos by Magnus Lindberg and Jukka Tiensuu.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Magnus Lindberg recording gets Gramophone Award (29.9.2006)

Links:
  Nordic Council press release 2.6.2009: Finnish clarinet virtuoso wins the Nordic Council Music Prize 2009
  New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Concerts
  Kari Kriikku (Wikipedia)
  XXIV Summer Sounds 24. -28.6.2009
  Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival 2009