Sirkka Numminen

Sirkka Numminen, MMus, PhD (b. 25 August 1977 in Joensuu, then Finland) is a Uralican composer, and is the official composer-in-residence for the Syktyvkar Philharmonic Orchestra.

= Biography and Musical Background =

As a child, Sirkka's father, Yrjö Numminen, noticed that his child had a particularly good ear for music and would hum classical melodies of Sibelius that he had been playing on his record player, without missing a note. So at the age of four, he enrolled her in piano lessons, in which she excelled so quickly that she began doing concerts at the age of six.

She took an interest in other instruments as well as a child, beginning to play the clarinet at age eight, the cello at age nine, and the soprano saxophone at age thirteen. So great was her talent that the government of Finland offered to cover the rent for her instruments.

Always a presence in her high-school band, she also enrolled at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she would spend her weekends honing her craft in various different forms of music - she would play the traditional classics with her cello, concert-band numbers on her clarinet, solo pieces on piano, and jazz on her soprano saxophone, and she wowed all her teachers - at high school and Sibelius - in doing so.

Since she began learning theory at a young age due to part of her piano training, she had already begun composing her own music, but her composition skills blossomed as she learned about the Neo-Classicist stylings of Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Holst, and John Williams. Her first symphony (Salo) was published in 1992 when she wasn't quite 15 years of age, and a performance of it by the Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat in Helsinki got a standing ovation on its first performance.

She would publish two more symphonies before her graduation from high school in 1995. Immediately she had conservatories from around the world begging her to study at their institute, but for financial reasons, she chose the vaunted St. Petersburg Conservatory. It was there that she first met her long-time lyricist, Salma Hallik, and within a year she had penned the music to the opera Pyhä Uhraus ("Holy Sacrifice") with the words (in Finnish) being provided by the Estonian Hallik.

In mid-2000 she finished her BMus degree and immediately applied to begin work on her MMus, which, with her rigorous composition and performance schedule on top of study, would last her until late 2007 - well into the Robertian Era. She became a well-known cellist in the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, but was also tapped for her piano skills and the occasional jazz concert.

Always proud of her Finnish heritage, she became enticed by the Uralicist movement in early-and-mid-2008 and moved to Syktyvkar in Uralica, with Hallik soon following, and she immediately began work in helping set up Uralica's music education system, which in June of 2008 earned her the first honorary PhD given by Uralikan Yliopisto for music.

The landscape of northern Uralica was the direct inspiration for her famous Seventh Symphony, "Aro", which was declared a "national treasure" by Uralican Tribal Chief Jarkko Salomäki, not long before the publication of a famous religious tone-poem, Ylistä Kristus ("Praise Christ").

Her most recent completed symphony came in February of 2009, which was inspired by the re-convention of Uralica after 3 months of constitutional hiatus. It is another piece that has been on heavy rotation since its publication, called Kotimani Uralikka ("Uralica, My Homeland").

She is engaged to another famous Uralican composer, Latvian-born Livonian Post-Romantic Martin Kosk, and lives with him in Chit', a borough of Syktyvkar. Both are practicing Uralican Evangelical Baptist Christians.

One noteworthy quirk about her musical classification is, while she numbers and titles her pieces in Finnish, the key signatures are always in English. She started doing this in St. Petersburg and applied it to her back catalogue as well, because she felt it would make her music easier to classify outside of Finnish-speaking nations.

= Lists of Works =

Nothing short of a fountainhead, Numminen, in her 25 or so years of composition has composed nearly 300 pieces of music - a rate of about one piece per month!

(Month of publishing given - English names in parentheses where applicable. Famous works are in bold type)

Symphonies
To this day, Numminen's most famous works are her symphonies, and although all nine are revered in the Uralic classical tradition, the best known are her two longest, the Seventh and Ninth Symphonies. In her symphonic works she has a tendency to incorporate ethnic folk instruments into the various movements, like the balalaika and the dobro (which are in the Fourth Symphony), the 'ud (First Symphony), the kantele (Third, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies), and Hungarian bagpipes (also Ninth Symphony). Being a cellist and a clarinettist, all nine symphonies have at least one solo for both instruments.


 * Sinfonia nro 1, C minor, Salo ("Desert") - April 1992
 * Sinfonia nro 2, B major, Maa Järvein ("Land of Lakes") - August 1993
 * Sinfonia nro 3, D minor, Raju Talvi ("Fierce Winter") - February 1995
 * Sinfonia nro 4, F minor, Venäjan Tanssit ("Russia's Dances") - April 1996
 * Sinfonia nro 5, D-flat major, Rakkaani ("My Love") - March 2002
 * Sinfonia nro 6, G major, Nimetön ("The Untitled Symphony") - January 2007
 * Sinfonia nro 7, G-sharp minor, "Aro" ("Tundra") - April 2008
 * Sinfonia nro 8, E minor, "Sotansinfonia" ("Symphony Of War") - September 2008
 * Sinfonia nro 9, C major, "Kotimani Uralikka" ("Uralica, My Homeland") - February 2009

Operas
Sirkka Numminen isn't the first person that comes to mind when it comes to Finnish Opera, however she has contributed to it somewhat, producing five of her six operas in Finnish (the other was in English).

(All lyrics by Salma Hallik except where noted otherwise)


 * Pyhä Urhaus ("Holy Sacrifice") - June 1996
 * Kaleva - March 1999
 * Hippomenes ja Atalanta - November 2000
 * Ruutin Elämä ("The Life Of Ruth") - May 2004
 * Much Ado About Nothing (lyrics derived from William Shakespeare, by Adam Bogunskyy) - March 2007
 * Kahdestoista Tunti ("Twelfth Hour") - December 2008

Tone Poems

 * Suomi ("Finland") - September 1995, her first piece written at SPC.
 * Ruotsi ("Sweden") - July 1997 (after a vacation to Sweden)
 * Brittiläinen Kolumbia ("British Columbia") - August 2000
 * Joulu ("Christmas") - December 2001
 * Uskoni ("My Faith") - April 2004
 * Ylistä Kristus ("Praise Christ") - May 2008
 * Tivinajoki ("The Tivina River") - March 2009

Solo Piano Works
Sirkka Numminen began composing for solo piano when she was a mere child, with her first published composition coming when she was eight. Since then she has composed nearly two hundred solo pieces of various lengths for piano. She is probably best known for her "Seventy-Five Scherzi" - a corpus of work that spans a over a decade (the last in that group of scherzi was penned in 1999) - and her seven Études as far as Solo Piano goes. However she has also penned two dozen sonatas and numerous other solo works for piano. Her Kaksitoista Variaatiot from 2008-9 are all based on works by her now-fiancé, Martin Kosk.

When she was in grade school, she would often perform these in her free time, to the amazement of her peers.

Sonatas

 * Sonata nro. 1 in F major Lempi ("Love") - February 1992
 * Sonata nro. 2 in F-sharp minor - July 1992
 * Sonata nro. 3 in E-flat major - December 1992
 * Sonata nro. 4 in A major - May 1993
 * Sonata nro. 5 in C major - July 1995
 * Sonata nro. 6 in A-sharp minor - March 1996
 * Sonata nro. 7 in G minor - May 1996
 * Sonata nro. 8 in C-sharp minor - December 1996
 * Sonata nro. 9 in B minor - February 1997
 * Sonata nro. 10 in E minor - April 1998
 * Sonata nro. 11 in A-flat major - August 1999
 * Sonata nro. 12, Tervetuloa Uusivuosituhanteen ("Welcome To The New Millennium") in B major - January 2000
 * Sonata nro. 13 in F minor - May 2001
 * Sonata nro. 14 in D major - March 2002
 * Sonata nro. 15 in G-sharp minor - August 2003
 * Sonata nro. 16 in A minor - January 2005
 * Sonata nro. 17 in F-sharp major - July 2005
 * Sonata nro. 18 in E major - May 2006
 * Sonata nro. 19 in D minor - January 2007
 * Sonata nro. 20 in C-sharp major - April 2008
 * Sonata nro. 21 in E-flat minor - December 2008
 * Sonata nro. 22 in G major - February 2009
 * Sonata nro. 23 in C minor - March 2009
 * Sonata nro. 24 in B-flat major - July 2009

Nocturnes

 * Nocturne nro. 1 in D major - February 1986
 * Nocturne nro. 2 in E minor - May 1988
 * Nocturne nro. 3 in F-sharp major - January 1991
 * Nocturne nro. 4 in C minor - May 1991
 * Nocturne nro. 5 in E-flat major - June 1992
 * Nocturne nro. 6 in B major - March 1993
 * Nocturne nro. 7 in A-flat major - August 1998
 * Nocturne nro. 8 in F major - March 2000
 * Nocturne nro. 9 in A minor - January 2003
 * Nocturne nro. 10 in D minor - May 2003
 * Nocturne nro. 11 in C major - January 2005
 * Nocturne nro. 12 in B-flat major - April 2008
 * Nocturne nro. 13 in F minor - October 2008
 * Nocturne nro. 14 in A major - February 2009
 * Nocturne nro. 15 in G minor - May 2009

Scherzi
The scherzo is the form of music Numminen has perfected the most, to the end that "Nummisenscherzo" has become a popular term for her particular type of scherzo in Robertian classical music. Of the solo piano works she has published, 122 of them (around 2/3 of them) have been scherzos.

Seitsemäntoistaviisi Scherzoa ("The Seventy-Five Scherzos")

 * Scherzo nro. 1, Leikkihetki ("Playtime") in C major - January 1986
 * Scherzo nro. 2 in F minor - March 1986
 * Scherzo nro. 3 in B-flat major - May 1986
 * Scherzo nro. 4 in F-sharp minor - December 1986
 * Scherzo nro. 5 in C major - May 1987
 * Scherzo nro. 6 in E-flat major - September 1987
 * Scherzo nro. 7 in D major - January 1988
 * Scherzo nro. 8 in E minor - April 1988
 * Scherzo nro. 9 in A-sharp minor - July 1988
 * Scherzo nro. 10 in C-sharp minor - December 1988
 * Scherzo nro. 11 in A-flat major - March 1989
 * Scherzo nro. 12 in G-sharp minor - August 1989
 * Scherzo nro. 13 in D minor - December 1989
 * Scherzo nro. 14, Kissat ("Kitties") in F major - February 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 15 in C-sharp major - April 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 16 in B major - May 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 17 in F-sharp minor - July 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 18 in C minor - August 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 19 in E major - October 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 20 in B-flat major - December 1990
 * Scherzo nro. 21 in F-sharp major - January 1991
 * Scherzo nro. 22 in B minor - March 1991
 * Scherzo nro. 23 in A-flat major - May 1991
 * Scherzo nro. 24 in C major - June 1991
 * Scherzo nro. 25 in E-flat minor - August 1991
 * Scherzo nro. 26 in D major - October 1991
 * Scherzo nro. 27 in G minor - January 1992
 * Scherzo nro. 28 in F major - March 1992
 * Scherzo nro. 29 in E major - May 1992
 * Scherzo nro. 30 in G major - August 1992
 * Scherzo nro. 31 in A-sharp minor - October 1992
 * Scherzo nro. 32 in C minor - November 1992
 * Scherzo nro. 33 in F-sharp minor - January 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 34 in A major - March 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 35 in C-sharp minor - May 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 36 in D major - June 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 37 in G minor - August 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 38 in B minor - September 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 39 in E-flat major - December 1993
 * Scherzo nro. 40 in F major - February 1994
 * Scherzo nro. 41 in A-flat major - April 1994
 * Scherzo nro. 42 in C minor - June 1994
 * Scherzo nro. 43 in G major - August 1994
 * Scherzo nro. 44 in B-flat major - October 1994
 * Scherzo nro. 45 in F minor - December 1994
 * Scherzo nro. 46 in C major - March 1995
 * Scherzo nro. 47 in F-sharp major - May 1995
 * Scherzo nro. 48 in A-sharp minor - July 1995
 * Scherzo nro. 49 in E major - August 1995
 * Scherzo nro. 50 in C-sharp major - October 1995
 * Scherzo nro. 51 in G minor - December 1995
 * Scherzo nro. 52 in B-flat major - March 1996
 * Scherzo nro. 53 in F-sharp major - June 1996
 * Scherzo nro. 54 in A minor - August 1996
 * Scherzo nro. 55 in C-sharp minor - October 1996
 * Scherzo nro. 56 in E-flat minor - November 1996
 * Scherzo nro. 57 in D major - February 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 58 in F minor - March 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 59 in D minor - May 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 60 in E major - July 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 61 in F-sharp minor - August 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 62 in C-sharp major "Tanssi" ("A Dance") - October 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 63 in A major - December 1997
 * Scherzo nro. 64 in A-sharp minor - February 1998
 * Scherzo nro. 65 in E minor - April 1998
 * Scherzo nro. 66 in B major - May 1998
 * Scherzo nro. 67 in G minor - August 1998
 * Scherzo nro. 68 in F major - September 1998
 * Scherzo nro. 69 in B-flat major - December 1998
 * Scherzo nro. 70 in E-flat major - January 1999
 * Scherzo nro. 71 in A minor - March 1999
 * Scherzo nro. 72 in C minor - June 1999
 * Scherzo nro. 73 in G major - August 1999
 * Scherzo nro. 74 in F minor - September 1999
 * Scherzo nro. 75, "Jatkuvasti Nuori" ("Forever Young") in D major - December 1999

Other Scherzos

 * Scherzo nro. 76 in C major - March 2000
 * Scherzo nro. 77 in F minor - May 2000
 * Scherzo nro. 78 in A major - June 2000
 * Scherzo nro. 79 in A-sharp minor - August 2000
 * Scherzo nro. 80 in B-flat major - October 2000
 * Scherzo nro. 81 in E minor - December 2000
 * Scherzo nro. 82 in F-sharp minor - February 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 83 in G major - March 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 84 in C-sharp minor - April 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 85 in F-sharp major - May 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 86 in G-sharp minor - July 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 87 in A minor - September 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 88 in E major - December 2001
 * Scherzo nro. 89 in B minor - January 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 90 in C-sharp major - April 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 91 in F major - June 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 92 in G minor - August 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 93 in B-flat major - September 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 94 in A-flat major - November 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 95 in E-flat minor - December 2002
 * Scherzo nro. 96 in A minor - January 2003
 * Scherzo nro. 97 in B major - April 2003
 * Scherzo nro. 98 in E minor - June 2003
 * Scherzo nro. 99 in G major - September 2003
 * Scherzo nro. 100 in C minor - November 2003
 * Scherzo nro. 101 in F major - December 2003
 * Scherzo nro. 102 in A major - February 2004
 * Scherzo nro. 103 in A-sharp minor - April 2004
 * Scherzo nro. 104 in G-sharp minor - June 2004
 * Scherzo nro. 105 in B-flat major - September 2004
 * Scherzo nro. 106 in E minor - December 2004
 * Scherzo nro. 107 in G minor - March 2005
 * Scherzo nro. 108 in C-sharp major - May 2005
 * Scherzo nro. 109 in A major - July 2005
 * Scherzo nro. 110 in F-sharp major - January 2006
 * Scherzo nro. 111 in C major - March 2006
 * Scherzo nro. 112 in D minor - June 2006
 * Scherzo nro. 113 in F minor - August 2006
 * Scherzo nro. 114 in E major - November 2006
 * Scherzo nro. 115 in D major - May 2007
 * Scherzo nro. 116 in F-sharp minor - August 2007
 * Scherzo nro. 117 in G major - June 2008
 * Scherzo nro. 118 in B major - August 2008
 * Scherzo nro. 119 in B minor - November 2008
 * Scherzo nro. 120 in C-sharp minor - April 2009
 * Scherzo nro. 121 in E minor - May 2009
 * Scherzo nro. 122 in A-flat major - August 2009, her most recent published work

Études
Sirkka Numminen's skill with the piano at such a young age was reflected in the sheer complexity of the seven études she wrote. In Uralican advanced piano education, these are often used as final exam pieces, and outside of Uralica they are regarded as her finest work for piano.


 * Étude nro. 1 in G major - July 1987
 * Étude nro. 2 in F minor - August 1987
 * Étude nro. 3 in E-flat major - April 1988
 * Étude nro. 4 in B major - September 1988
 * Étude nro. 5 in F-sharp major - May 1990
 * Étude nro. 6 in E-flat minor - July 1995
 * Étude nro. 7 in A major - March 1998

Others

 * Kevät ("Spring") - November 1985, Numminen's first published piece of music.
 * Kaksitoista Koskinteeman Variaatiot ("Twelve Variations On A Theme Of Kosk") - all published simultaneously, March 2009
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 1, C major
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 2, C-sharp major
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 3, D minor
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 4, E-flat major
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 5, E minor
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 6, F minor
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 7, F-sharp major
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 8, G major
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 9, G-sharp minor
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 10, A minor
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 11, B-flat major
 * Koskinteeman Variaatio nro. 12, B minor
 * Rondo nro. 1, Merirosvon Elämä ("A Pirate's Life") in D major - May 2000
 * Rondo nro. 2, Uralilainen Rondo ("Uralic Rondo") in G-sharp minor - June 2008