Biography

Canadian-Finnish composer Matthew Whittall (b. 1975) began his studies as a hornist in Montreal. He earned degrees in performance and composition from Vanier College, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Stony Brook University, before settling in Finland in 2001. There he studied at the Sibelius Academy, receiving his Doctor of Music degree with honors in 2013. Whittall’s prolific output covers a wide variety of genres, particularly orchestra, voice, chorus, chamber and solo instrumental works, with occasional forays into electronics. His works have been commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony, the Helsinki and Vancouver Chamber Choirs, and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, among others. His music has featured in festivals and radio broadcasts worldwide. In 2013, his work “Dulcissima, clara, sonans”, a setting of poetry by Hildegard of Bingen for soprano and orchestra, won Finland’s highest composition award, the Teosto Prize.

Whittall’s music is marked by an attempt to fuse its various disparate influences – Old and New World, Western and non-Western, sacred and secular, classical, folk and popular – into a single, variegated expressive language, and by a use of extramusical imagery ranging from natural phenomena to poetry and landscape art. Recent works on these themes include the half-hour cycle Songs of Travel, written as composer-in-association with the UK-based Carice Singers, and The Geography of Hope for the Audite Chamber Choir, with whom Whittall performs as a regular member.

Upcoming premieres include JOY, for orchestra and organ, commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony to celebrate the Helsinki Music Centre’s new Rieger concert organ, and a concerto for oboe and strings for Finnish oboist Anni Haapaniemi. 2025 sees the creation of The World Tree, a concert-length a cappella work for the Helsinki Chamber Choir, to an original libretto by the award-winning British nature writer Robert Macfarlane.

Matthew Whittall lives in Helsinki, Finland. In addition to a busy schedule as a freelance composer, he teaches composition and orchestration at the Sibelius Academy. His work has been supported by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, among others. In 2024, he was awarded a two-year grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Whittall’s works are published exclusively by Fennica Gehrman.

Kanadalais-suomalaissäveltäjä Matthew Whittall (s. 1975) suoritti tutkinnon sävellyksestä ja esittävästä taiteesta Massachusettsin yliopistossa ja New Yorkin valtion yliopistossa. Hän on säveltänyt musiikkia moniin eri tarkoituksiin, niin orkesteri-, laulu-, kuoro-, kamari- ja sooloteoksia kuin myös elektronista musiikkia. Whittallin teoksia on esitetty muun muassa Toronton sinfoniaorkesterin, YLE Radion sinfoniaorkesterin ja Helsingin kaupunginorkesterin ohjelmissa ja sellaisilla festivaaleilla kuten Helsingin Musica nova, Tampere Biennale, Crusell-viikko, Mäntän Musiikkijuhlat sekä Pohjoismaiden Musiikkipäivät. Hänen teos ”Dulcissima, clara, sonans” sopraanolle ja orkesterille voitti vuoden 2013 Teosto-palkinnon. Joulukuussa 2013 hän väitteli musiikin tohtoriksi Sibelius-Akatemialla, jossa hän myös opettaa soitinnusta ja sävellystä. Whittallin musiikkia leimaa pyrkimys sulauttaa yhteen eri vaikutteita – uutta ja vanhaa maailmaa, länsimaista ja ei-länsimaista, klassista, kansanmusiikkia ja pop-musiikkia – yhdeksi ekspressiiviseksi kieleksi sekä taipumus käyttää ulkomusiikillista kuvastoa aina luonnon ilmiöistä runouteen ja maisemataiteeseen.