LEEVI RÄSÄNEN

c o m p o s e r

​

As a consumer of music, Leevi Räsänen (b. 1997, Enonkoski) is equally at home in the pounding of sticky-floored nightclubs, listening to contemporary music whispers in concert halls as well as enjoying Broadway musicals and opera. Diverse influences and starting points dominate his compositions. He creates works tailored to their unique contexts using ever-changing methods. Räsänen's works reflect his values, personal experiences, and incorporate phenomena and quotations from popular culture. He often builds them around internal experiences of the mind, such as memories, relationships, emotions, and experiences of time and place.

Räsänen is best known for his interest in microtonality within contemporary settings, but also for his work in multidisciplinary  groups, and for bringing non-musical phenomena into concert halls. He is interested in blending various equal divisions of the octave and natural tuning, as well as combining acoustic sound with electronics, objects, and other parameters such as light and motion.

Having also studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Räsänen graduated with a master’s in composition from Sibelius Academy in 2023. His recent collaborators include, for example, the brass quintet of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who commissioned his work for lighting and brass quintet "Light Flowers," which received its premiere at the Concert hall of the Helsinki Music Centre in February 2024. In a short time, Räsänen has gained recognition for his works in countries such as South Korea, Spain, Mexico, and the United States, and he represented Finland at the Ung Nordisk Musik Festivals in Sweden 2019, Denmark 2021, and Norway 2023. Räsänen will be the guest composer for the 2024 Brinkhall soi festival in Turku, where his new work for the Æstus Ensemble and orchestra Refugium Musicum, led by conductor József Hárs will premiere, with the four members of Æstus serving as soloists. Currently, Leevi is supported by the Arts Promotion Center Finland and the Kone Foundation in his work on new compositions. Räsänen's work has also received support from organizations such as the Paulo Foundation, Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation, and BNP Paribas.