I started to plan works for stage already before my studies at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. My first chamber opera ”Velhosiskot” (The Witch Company) was performed in Helsinki as an independent production in the autumn 1996 (Link). In 1997-98 I could study in France the very basics of the music theatre composition, because I was chosen as a composition student at Académie européenne de la musique connected to the festival of Aix-en-Provence . The result of my studies was a short but intense chamber opera ”Madame de Sade” based on the French translation of the play by Yukio Mishima ”Sado kôshaku fujin” (1965). Later I composed a new version in a collaboration with the stage director Janne Lehmusvuo. The premiere of the new version was performed in Helsinki in August 2010 as a production of the opera ensemble ”Ooppera Skaala” . I finished the score in Japan during my artist recidency at Tokyo Wonder Site.

Earthrise tells of a world losing its mind. In the year 1624 (or 2024) while political and religious forces fight for influence, scientific research unravels crucial data that calls into question our way of thinking about our place in the universe – and we react with nothing but confusion and embarrassment. With his science-fiction novel The Dream, the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) tried to advance a new worldview by speaking to his readers’ imaginations: what would our world look like if seen from the Moon? Kepler suffered in his struggle against dogmatism. He even needed to defend his own mother Katharina Kepler (1546–1622) in a witchcraft trial. However, he never ceased to believe in the secret harmony governing the world; a harmony we experience only through the sciences and the arts. Inspired by the lives of Johannes and Katharina Kepler, the music theatre work Earthrise combines 17th-century compositions with genre-bending new music by composer Juha T. Koskinen and vocal artist Anni Elif Egecioglu. The libretto for this work is devised by writer-director Aleksi Barrière. Cembalist Marianna Henriksson invites music by Kepler’s contemporaries such as Capricornus, Galilei, Scheidt, or Harant to enter a dialogue with this music of our time.

Premiere: Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, October 17, 2024 Text & Stage Direction: ALEKSI BARRIÈRE Early Music Montage & Ensemble Direction: MARIANNA HENRIKSSON Songs & Vocal Improvisations: ANNI ELIF EGECIOGLU Actor: THOMAS KELLNER Early Music: PHILIPPE DE MONTE, KRYŠTOF HARANT, MICHAEL PRAETORIUS, SAMUEL SCHEIDT, JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN, and ROMANUS WEICHLEIN Finnish Baroque Orchestra: ANTHONY MARINI, violin; KAISA RUOTSALAINEN, violin; TUULA RIISALO, viola; LOUNA HOSIA, viola da gamba; ANNA RINTA-RAHKO, violone; EERO PALVIAINEN, lute; MARIANNA HENRIKSSON, harpsichord & organ Lighting Design: ÉTIENNE EXBRAYAT Video Design: LUCIA SCHMIDT Sound Design: TIMO KURKIKANGAS Set Design: ALEKSI BARRIÈRE & ÉTIENNE EXBRAYAT

Premiere: Maison de la Radio, Paris, Festival Présences, February 14, 2017. Thomas Kellner, actor Vladimir Percevic, viola Secession Orchestra, conductor Clément Mao-Takacs Stage director: Aleksi Barrière Premiere of the new version: Finnish National Opera, Musica nova Helsinki Festival, February 6, 2019. Thomas Kellner, actor Vladimir Percevic, viola Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera, conductor Clément Mao-Takacs Stage director: Aleksi Barrière