VELI KUJALA — BIOGRAPHY
Veli Kujala (b. 1976) is a Finnish composer and accordionist. He works between contemporary concert music, improvisation and jazz, and much of what he plays was written for him.
He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, completing his Master of Music in 2004 and, in 2010, a Doctor of Music passed with distinction. His doctoral work centred on new Finnish accordion music.
As a composer he writes for forces ranging from a single instrument to full orchestra. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra commissioned his violin concerto Auseil, premiered in 2019. His accordion concerto Shape-Shifter appears on Finnish Accordion Concertos, which won the 2024 Classical Emma, Finland’s national record prize; his earlier portrait album Hyperorganism was nominated in the same category. In 2020 the Finnish Music Publishers Association named him Contemporary Composer of the Year, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a thirty-minute orchestral work for premiere in 2027.
His music also travels without him. Performers have taken it to the Elbphilharmonie, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid. Individual works have entered the repertoire of soloists and ensembles on four continents.
As an accordionist Kujala has given more than eighty premieres, twelve of them concertos, working closely with composers over long stretches of their careers. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across Europe and in the United States, at festivals including the BBC Proms, Warsaw Autumn, Jazzfest Berlin and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, and in staged opera at the Metropolitan Opera in Brett Dean’s Hamlet and in the world premiere of Karólína Eiríksdóttir’s Lisbeta on Åland.
Kujala develops and designs instruments. In 2006, with the composer Sampo Haapamäki, he developed the first chromatic quarter-tone accordion, which divides the octave into twenty-four pitches and was built by Pigini. A substantial repertoire has since been written for it. He is currently developing a swell mechanism to widen the accordion’s range of colour, supported by the Wihuri Foundation.
He serves on the board of the Teosto Cultural Foundation and was artistic director of the New Music October festival in Oulu from 2016 to 2018. He has taught at the Sibelius Academy since 2005 and has headed its classical accordion studies since 2020.
VELI KUJALA — BIOGRAPHY (150 WORDS)
Veli Kujala (b. 1976) is a Finnish composer and accordionist.
As a composer he writes for forces ranging from a single instrument to full orchestra. His violin concerto Auseil was commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and his accordion concerto Shape-Shifter appears on Finnish Accordion Concertos, winner of the 2024 Classical Emma, Finland’s national record prize. His music is played internationally, reaching halls including the Elbphilharmonie, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a new orchestral work for 2027. In 2020 he was named Contemporary Composer of the Year in Finland.
As an accordionist he has given more than eighty premieres, twelve of them concertos, and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across Europe and in the United States. In 2022 he appeared on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in Brett Dean’s Hamlet.
He is Head of Classical Accordion at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
VELI KUJALA — BIOGRAPHY (60 WORDS)
Veli Kujala (b. 1976) is a Finnish composer and accordionist. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra have both commissioned his music, which is played internationally. As a soloist he has given over eighty premieres, twelve of them concertos. In 2020 he was named Contemporary Composer of the Year in Finland.