From stardust to human

The Turku Music Festival opens a new era at the Fuuga Music Centre by bringing two young composers with roots in Turku, Alma Meretoja and Kuura Klaavu, to the stage of the Ateljee Hall. 18-year-old Meretoja and 23-year-old Klaavu represent a new generation of composers who are emerging from Turku and making their way onto the international music scene.

Alma Meretoja’s musical journey has gained momentum rapidly: her first piano concerto, Ikara, was premiered with Aura Sinfonia in spring 2026, and she is now studying composition at the Sibelius Academy. At Fuuga, the first two movements of Ikara, “Aika” and “Kajo”, will be heard in an arrangement for two pianos, alongside three further works: kronofobia, Une étude sur un mirage d’amour, and Terminal lucidity, which will receive its world premiere.

Kuura Klaavu is a multidisciplinary musician and composer whose music brings together concert music, cinematic expression and storytelling. A graduate of the Turku Conservatory, Klaavu is currently studying composition in Vienna. Her half-hour work is an uninterrupted journey through time and light, in which acoustic music, singing, speech and soundscapes explore the traces left by the past, time and humanity.

In From stardust to human, the distinctive voices of two young composers meet their open-minded approach to the possibilities of music. In their works, Meretoja and Klaavu engage with great and timeless questions – of time, humanity, existence, love, and what ultimately remains of us – bringing a fresh perspective shaped by their generation.

The concert offers a glimpse into the new generation of composers and highlights the ambitious musical talent emerging from Turku. At the same time, TMF’s first own concert at Fuuga marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Turku Music Festival’s activities and offers a taste of what is to come: a programme where new voices, fresh perspectives and different musical worlds meet.