Rovaniemi-based composer Outi Tarkiainen (b. 1985) has emerged with a distinctive style and a desire to try something new.
A graduate of the Sibelius Academy, Tarkiainen is at home with both jazz and classical music. Her works have featured in many prominent festivals and been performed to audiences in the Nordic countries and many other European countries, as well as the United States, by ensembles such as the Metropole Orchestra, UMO Jazz Orchestra, Norrbotten Big Band, Big Band RTV Slovenija, Henry Mancini Institute Chamber Orchestra, Miami Concert Jazz Band, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Lapland, and Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra. Soloists who have performed her works include such jazz legends as David Liebman, Randy Brecker, Conrad Herwig, Peter Erskine, Dick Oatts and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
Tarkiainen has been a visiting composer-conductor for UMO Jazz Orchestra, the Slovenian Radio and Television Big Band in Ljubljana, and for the Norrbotten Big Band's Swedish concert tour in 2011. In 2008, she won first prize at the international Jazzverk big band composition competition in Sweden. In addition to Norrbotten Big Band, her music has been recorded by Umo Jazz Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, Metropole String Orchestra and Emma Salokoski. Several of her works are found on master tapes in the archives of the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, and live recordings have been aired on Sveriges Radio P2 in Sweden.