Kaija Saariaho Born 1952 Composer The natural world and visual arts interested Saariaho, and both filtered into her compositions. Dreamlike soundscapes were something of a trademark for the Finnish composer, whose musical vocabulary was broad, taking her from the deeply experimental electronic soundworlds of her youthful works through to the graceful, fervent operas such as 2000’s L’Amour de loin and instrumental and vocal works that marked her later output. Born in Helsinki, she studied at the Sibelius Academy alongside Esa-Pekka Salonen and Magnus Lindberg under the likes of Paavo Heininen, while her studies in Germany saw her work with both Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber. It was in early-1980s Paris that the composer bloomed, with a formative period working at Pierre Boulez’s research facility where she embraced electronic music. From there, she found her voice and increasingly drew acclaim internationally, quietly blazing a trail and becoming a beacon for other women composers.
Kathryn Harries Born 1951 Soprano/Mezzo-soprano Harries’s vocal range afforded her the chance to perform a large variety of roles, though she came to the opera stage relatively late. Before her debut as a flower maiden in a 1983 Welsh National Opera production of Wagner’s Parsifal, aged 32, the singer (who would toggle between soprano and mezzo) had enjoyed a stint as a television presenter, co-hosting the BBC’s educational show Music Time for f
