CV
Baroque Ensemble Cornucopia
Pekka Silén, recorder
Louna Hosia, baroque cello/ viola da gamba
Marianna Henriksson, harpsichord
Baroque Ensemble Cornucopia was founded in 2010. The repertoire of the ensemble consists of all national styles of the baroque, as well as music from the renaissance and the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble regularly commissions new repertoire from contemporary composers, and works together with other musicians and dancers. The ensemble creates concert programmes with exciting contrasts and syntheses between the different styles, also using fresh and varied instrumentation.
Cornucopia has given concerts all around Finland, also at many festivals (e.g Barokki Soi, Kajaani; Tampere Theatre Festival; BaroqueKuopio; I Barockens Labyrinter, Parainen; Helsinki Organ Summer; Kirkko soikoon, Helsinki ). Premieres have been played of compositions by Olli Virtaperko, Tomi Räisänen and Timo Alakotila. In the programme ”I was the night – Songs by Jacques Brel and from the Baroque” Cornucopia was joined by the singer Janne Marja-aho and the theorbo player Solmund Nystabakk, and in two programmes with compositions by Bach and Telemann by the soprano Anna Brummer. The ensemble has recorded two Olli Virtaperko´s compositions for the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
In November 2015 Cornucopia played the premiere of Tomi Räisänen´s new work, also called Cornucopia. The programme ”Once upon a Ground” consists of both contemporary and early music making use of the electronics (Saariaho, Arteaga, Virtaperko, Byrd, Purcell, Jenkins).
In November 2017, Cornucopia brought to the premiere a new work, Superborea, where three traditions meet: a new composition for baroque instruments by Juha T. Koskinen, music from a baroque opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, and the language of modern dance, by Janne Marja-aho and Kaisa Torkkel. Kimmo Karjunen makes the visual design, Jaakko Kulomaa the sound design.
In May 2018, Cornucopia launched a new programme: If All the World Were Paper. It consists of new miniatures by Riikka Talvitie, and 17th century English music: Purcell, Locke, Hume, Bull and Playford.
The newest programme in November 2018 was What You Will - new compositions of Shakespeare´s sonnets (Jussi Tuurna, Anna-Mari Kähärä, Maija Kaunismaa), and songs and other music from 17th century from Shakespeare´s plays. Janne Marja-aho is the vocalist, and Solmund Nystabakk the theorbo player.
Pekka Silén studied the recorder at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki) and at the Conservatoire of Utrecht. He has given concerts in several European countries; recitals, as an orchestral soloist and as a chamber musician (e.g the ensembles Cornucopia, The Elysian Fields and La Compagnie inégale). He has made several radio and television recordings. His creative concert programmes include baroque and renaissance music which has been rarely heard, as well as world and Finland premieres of contemporary compositions.
Pekka Silén teaches at the West Helsinki Music Institute, deveveloping there both recorder pegagogy and a lively early chamber music activity. He also teaches at Karjaa Early Music Summer Course and at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.
The harpsichordist Marianna Henriksson has graduated both from the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki) and the Berlin University of Arts (Konzertexamen). She is a versatile musician who performs actively as a chamber musician, orchestral player and in interdisciplinary productions.
Henriksson regularly gives concerts as a member of the international baroque orchestra Les Ambassadeurs, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Baroque Ensemble Cornucopia, Berlin Cembalo Ensemble and Musica Sequenza. In the years 2013-14 she was chosen to play in the European Union Baroque Orchestra, with directors such as Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Gottfried von der Goltz and Rachel Podger. From the year 2013 Henriksson has played as the cembalo soloist of the Berlin breakdance work Flying Bach, with performances in Europe, Japan, Russia and Chile. She regularly plays also contemporary music and has given premieres of works by Olli Virtaperko, Timo Alakotila, Tomi Räisänen and Sarah Nemtsov, among others. In May 2015 Henriksson gave the first concert of her doctoral education at the Sibelius Academy: a peformance combining early baroque music and new dance, with the coreography by Anna Mustonen. The second post graduate recital was given in May 2016 inside an oil storage tank in Helsinki; the programme was called Ad Olio: Concert for harpsichord, trumpet and sound.
http://www.mariannahenriksson.com/
Louna Hosia studied at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki) and the Academy of Music of Catalonia, with baroque cello as her main subject. She performs regularly in the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Opus X Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Nylandia, New Century Baroque (a founding member), Concerto Copenhagen, and in the ensembles Cornucopia, Recordanza and Le Fiabe. In 2009 she was a member of The European Unionin Baroque Orchestra. Both as a baroque cello and viola da gamba player, Hosia gives concerts in these orchestras and ensembles all around Europe.
Louna Hosia teaches at the Helsinki Conservatoire and at the West Helsinki Music Institutes Since 2010 she has been a member of Fibo Collegium, the training operation of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra. Louna Hosia has made several recordings in the ensembles and orchestras. The latest of these, the Graupner cd with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, was given ”The Record of the Year ” award by the Finnish Broadcasting Company in 2013.