Tuomas Turriago

Composer, pianist and conductor Tuomas Turriago’s insatiable passion and love for music – regardless of instrument, style or genre – has been a driving force of his career. He began playing the piano at the age of seven, and he took his first steps toward composing at nine. His debut as orchestra solois was with Jyväskylä Sinfonia when he was eleven years old. At 13, Tuomas won the Nordic piano competition in Kil, Sweden, and he reached second place in the national Jyväskylä Piano Competition at 22. His career as a pianist has had an emphasis on chamber music, and he has worked as Senior Lecturer in accompaniment at Tampere University of Applied Sciences since 2004 and as Chamber Music Teacher at the Sibelius Academy since 2019. He has performed as a soloist for several Finnish orchestras, played at several Finnish music festivals and around Europe, the United States, Columbia, Middle East and Far East.
His composition catalogue spans 45 works and includes, for instance, two chamber operas, two piano sonatas, sonatas for tuba and piano, trumpet and piano, French horn and piano, alto saxophone and piano, flute and piano, recorder and harpsichord and solo guitar, as well as two string quartets, a chamber concerto and a string symphony. His music has been published by Fennica Gehrman and Uusinta Kustannus. He has received several grants for composition work from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Pro Musica Fund, among others.
Since 2010, Tuomas has regularly been featured as the conductor of TampereRaw and Tampere Music Academy, and he is a founding member and conductor in the Tampere Chamber Music association. He has also conducted, for example, Vaasa City Orchestra, Seinäjoki City Orchestra, St. Michel Strings, Tampere Chamber and Tampere Philhamornic Brass. Transcending the boundaries of the chamber genre, he also conducted the musical Hair at the Tampere Theatre Festival in 2019, played Piazzolla’s music in the InTime quintet in 2010–2016, and has arranged several tango works.
Tuomas has recorded for the labels Alba and Pilfink. In the summer of 2019, he was nominated for the Classical Composer of the Year award of the Finnish Music Publishers’ Association.