NEWS! CREATIVE DIALOGUE IX is taking place in Kallio-Kuninkala, Finland from 28th of August to 5th of September 2017. This year the faculty will be Kaija Saariaho, Anssi Karttunen and the French sound engineer David Poissonnier. The focus of this years worksop will be music for string instruments and electronics. The 5 participating composers will be writing pieces for various string ensembles and electronics for the 3 violinists, 2 viola players and 3 cellists attending. The String players will also each prepare a work by Kaija Saariaho with electronics. The final concert will take place at the Black Box of the Music Centre in Helsinki on the 5th of September at 3pm.

The Creative Dialogue workshop was created in 2008 to inspire young performers and composers to engage in a dialogue that benefits not only the two parties but also music life in general. Performers and composers often study in the same institutions, but seldom are they encouraged to find out how much they have to learn from each other. Apart from the immediate personal relations that result from such a dialogue, it will lead to a deeper understanding of how composer-performer friendships have affected the history of music. Anssi Karttunen, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg conceived this workshop together with Sibelius-Academy to open new horizons and break barriers.

The Sibelius Academy, the music university of Finland invites some of the most prestigious Universities and Conservatories in the USA and Europe to send students to the Creative Dialogue. The first 6 Creative Dialogues were held at Acequia Madre House, the former Santa Fe, NM home of the Curtin-Paloheimo family. The family founded the living history museum, El Rancho de las Golondrinas and is related to the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In 2015 the workshop was held in FInland, at the Paloheimo family's residence in Kallio-Kuninkala, Järvenpää, Finland, which is a campus of the Sibelius Academy. Creative Dialogue returned to the Acequia Madre House in 2016 and will now be held on alternate years in the two countries.

Creative Dialogue VIII took place 19th-28th June 2016 in Santa Fe, NM. Magnus Lindberg and Anssi Karttunen were joined on the faculty by the Led Zeppelin legend, multi-instrumentalist and composer John Paul Jones. The final concert was held at the St. Francis Auditorium, Santa Fe on the 28th of June. Listen to the concert

The composer participants wrote pieces for different combinations of low string instruments (3 cellos, 2 double bass and 2 electric bass). The cellists and double bass players shared Magnus's Partia for solo cello, The double bass players transcribed together with Magnus Coranto and Boria. Magnus's Etude I was also be played in a new version by Anssi Karttunen for 5 cellos and 2 double basses. 

Improvisation workshops were also an important part of Creative Dialogue this time, instrumentalists and composers improvised together during the week and in the concert.

Creative Dialogue VII was held January 31st to February 7th, 2015 in Kallio-Kuninkala, Tuusula, Finland. Kaija Saariaho was again on the faculty together with Anssi Karttunen and the Finnish pianist Tuija Hakkila. The participants were invited from many of the top European and US conservatories. The young composers wrote pieces for piano and strings. The final concert was at the Music Centre in Helsinki on the 7th of February as part of the festival Musica nova Helsinki and included the student compositions as well as some of Kaija Saariaho's most recent works for strings and piano. 

Creative Dialogue VI in 2014 was led by Magnus Lindberg and Anssi Karttunen with the Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan. The workshop took place 3rd-11th July, with a concert at the St. Francis Auditorium on July 11th. The participating composers wrote pieces for voices and string instruments and the performers worked on Magnus Lindberg's pieces and pieces for voice and strings by Kaija Saariaho, Peter Lieberson and Harrison Birtwistle.

Creative Dialogue V took place 17-24th July 2012, it was led jointly by Anssi Karttunen, Magnus Lindberg and the Israeli clarinetist Chen Halevi. The instrumentalists played solo and chamber pieces by Magnus Lindberg (with the composer on the piano) and the composers were invited to write pieces for cellos and clarinets, which were all prepared for a concert at the St. Francis Auditorium, this time once again part of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Creative Dialogue IV was a workshop for cellists. This time Anssi Karttunen worked with six cellists on a special project, the Mystery Variations, a series of pieces by 31 composer-friends of Karttunen, written for his 50th birthday. Each cellist played 3-6 of the pieces among which were 21 US premieres. The very well attended and enthusiastically received concert took place again at the St. Francis Auditorium.

In the 2010 Creative Dialogue III, Anssi Karttunen and the Finnish Guitarist Timo Korhonen led a group of 5 cellists and 3 guitar players in a workshop of new solo and chamber pieces and improvisation. The repertoire was centered on composers Karttunen and Korhonen have personally worked with, one of the highlights of the final concert was a group improvisation of all the students.

Creative Dialogue II, in 2009, was led by Anssi Karttunen and the participants were 7 cellists who worked on a repertoire of new solo cello pieces and pieces for cello ensembles. Parts of the repertoire were worked with composers, the late Peter Lieberson was present; Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg and Pablo Ortiz worked with the players via the internet.

Creative Dialogue I in 2008 was a workshop for composers and string players. The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and cellist Anssi Karttunen led the workshop. The string players - 2 violinists, 2 violists and 3 cellists - also worked on solo pieces by Kaija Saariaho. The composers wrote pieces specially for the ensembles of string players available, pieces were rehearsed and revised every afternoon and performed in the final concert, which was organised in collaboration with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

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