Seven works of music nominated for the 2024 Teosto Prize

The Teosto Prize’s prize money of EUR 40,000 can be divided among a maximum of four winning works. If only one winner is selected, the prize money will be EUR 25,000. All the nominated works and collections of works were published or premiered in 2023.

The nominees for the 2024 Teosto Prize are:

• Niko Katavainen and his team’s works on MELO’s album m<3lo
• Outi Tarkiainen’s composition Polar Pearls, concerto for chamber orchestra
• Minna Leinonen’s composition …and we are rotating with it
• Jenni Kinnunen’s compositions and Jenni Kinnunen and her team’s arrangements on Tinyhawk & Bizzarro’s album Nekorok
• Orvokki Oittila’s works on Orvokki’s album Kasvotusten
• Verneri Pohjola’s compositions on the album Monkey Mind
• Vilma Jää and Mikko Renfors’s compositions, Vilma Jää’s lyrics and Vilma Jää, Mikko Renfors, Hanna Ryynänen and their team’s arrangements on Vilma Jää’s album Kosto 

The nominees were selected by a preliminary selection panel consisting of journalist Katri Norrlin (Chair), journalist and radio host Laura Vähähyyppä, DJ and researcher Mikko Mattlar, PhD, and blogger Pasi Virtanen aka Jazzpossu, as well as journalists Sonja Saarikoski, Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen and Oskari Onninen.

“This time, the nominated works include original pop music, inspired instrumental music, big melodies and powerful themes. The list of nominees shows what a wide range of particularly interesting and distinctive music was published in Finland last year,” says Katri Norrlin, the Chair of the preliminary selection panel.

The winner or winners of the Teosto Prize will be selected from the nominees by a five-person panel of judges, which consists of the winners of the 2023 Teosto Prize Tapio Lappalainen, Helmi Kajaste aka Draama-Helmi and Mikko Sarvanne as well as members invited by Teosto’s management team, Spotify’s Finland music editor Ida Karimaa and lecturer (pop / jazz vocal music) and songwriter Aija Puurtinen, DMus. The winners will be announced at an event for invited guests at the restaurant of Helsinki Music Centre after mid-April. The exact time of the event will be announced later.

Teosto Prize celebrates the diversity of music genres

With the Teosto Prize, Teosto also wants to bear responsibility for the future success and diversity of Finnish music. The Teosto Prize is awarded to bold, original and innovative works of music, regardless of genre or commercial success.

With the prize, Teosto also wants to highlight the special importance of the work and primary production done by music authors and composers for the entire music industry ecosystem.

Reasons for selecting the nominees for the Teosto Prize

Niko Katavainen and his team’s works on MELO’s album m<3lo

M<3lo is such an original work of pop music of its time that only few in Finland can match it. On the album, the bleak and dramatic electro aesthetics of the turn of the 2010s combine seamlessly with harsh new rap productions. However, deep down M<3lo is still essentially a pop album that contains relatable personal emotional expression. The album’s extremes form a triangle: the lyrics are intensely emotional, the soundscape is digitally distanced and the melodies are irresistibly sugary. Between these contradictions is a tension skilfully crafted by MELO.

Outi Tarkiainen’s composition Polar Pearls, concerto for chamber orchestra

(premiere: Lapland Chamber Orchestra, conducted by John Storgårds, 1 June 2023, Salla Church)
Outi Tarkiainen’s Polar Pearls is a concerto for a chamber orchestra that consists of eight miniature-like movements. It draws inspiration from the close relationship between people and nature in the north, where the effects of climate change are becoming visible even faster than elsewhere. Polar Pearls is also a trip through time and a work that moves smoothly from Baroque references to the present day. It looks at its gloomy subject through the lens of melancholy beauty. The inventive use of chamber orchestra instruments and brilliant orchestration form a whole that is both sad and hopeful. 

Minna Leinonen’s composition …and we are rotating with it

(premiere: Kamus Quartet, Our Festival, 29 July 2023, Kallio-Kuninkala’s Leonora hall)
In her work …and we are rotating with it, Minna Leinonen succeeds both in continuing the long tradition of the string quartet and in contributing something new and original to it. The accelerated rotation of the Earth provides a starting point from which the composition expands to an ambiguous depiction of dizzying change that takes advantage of expanded ways of playing in an organic way.

Jenni Kinnunen’s compositions and Jenni Kinnunen and her team’s arrangements on Tinyhawk & Bizzarro’s album Nekorok

Tinyhawk & Bizarro’s instrumental album Nekorok smoothly combines a huge number of music genres from desert rock to AOR via electronic music. Jenni Kinnunen’s guitar playing sounds stylish and inspired, and her compositions are a breath of fresh air in the Finnish electric guitar tradition. 

Orvokki Oittila’s works on Orvokki’s album Kasvotusten

Orvokki’s Kasvotusten is a creative, experimental and thoughtfully made debut album full of captivating and unpredictable pop music, where fascinating and playful electronic music becomes something cinematic, touching and easy to dance to. With the nine-song album, Orvokki has created something genuinely bold and new while knowing exactly what she is doing.

Verneri Pohjola’s compositions on the album Monkey Mind

Verneri Pohjola’s Monkey Mind goes from a hectic depiction of mental unrest to serene peace of mind. In the compositions, Pohjola’s big melodies meet open soundscapes that inspire one to improvise. Fragility and vulnerability give rise to inner strength and hope. As a whole, Monkey Mind feels like a successful synthesis of the various elements of Pohjola’s career so far, in which the composer’s own voice and personality are very evident. 

Vilma Jää and Mikko Renfors’s compositions, Vilma Jää’s lyrics and Vilma Jää, Mikko Renfors, Hanna Ryynänen and their team’s arrangements on Vilma Jää’s album Kosto

Vilma Jää’s debut album Kosto combines folk music with modern pop in a way that works unusually well in both its compositions and arrangements. The lyrics of the thematic album, which handles trauma and survival, are about difficult subjects such as manipulation and the abuse experienced by women. The mix of various elements in the music feels original and new.