Tuomas Kantelinen studied classical composing in his native Finland
and continues to make music for both cinema and concert audiences. He has scored orchestral
film music for over 30 feature films, including Sergei Bodrov's Genghis Khan epic Mongol, Klaus Haro's awarded Mother of Mine and Renny Harlin´s dark thriller
Mindhunters.
Greetings from Norway, where I spent last weekend and was happy to accept the HARPA award for 'Nordic Film Composer 2013' for the 'Purge' score! Had a great time meeting fellow composers and attending master classes, as well as a beautiful film music concert, full of Nordic composer talent!
Here is some additional info on the award:
On April 21st, the jury of the 2013 Nordic Film Music Prize awarded Tuomas Kantelinen for his “wonderfully sensitive scoring” for the Finnish film ‘Puhdistus’ (or ‘Purge’) by director Antti Jokinen.
The jury released a statement saying, “Although we want to stress the very high quality level of every one of the five scores are presented to us in this selection, we feel that the original music of “Purge” stood out because of its probability to convey with great sophistication, melodic sense and sensitivity the deep, emotional complexity of the characters and to underline the extreme hardship of the circumstances should without ever resorting to easy solutions.”
The nominees were Benny Andersson (of ABBA fame) for ‘Palme’, Peter Peter for ‘Over kanten’, Ben Frost & Daniel Bjarnason for ‘The Deep’ and Peder Kjellsby for ‘Varg Veum Kalde hjerter.’ Kantelinen comments, “All five nominees are already winners because we have the joy and privilege to work on our dream job every day.” Nominees were chosen by each country’s composer guild (i.e. SCL in the US). This year’s international jury consisted of composers Bernard Grimaldi (France, founding member and co-president of FFACE, the European Association of Film Composers), Richard Bellis (USA) and Loek Dikker (NL).
Tuomas is currently composing the music for frequent collaborator Sergei Bodrov’s movie ‘The Seventh Son,’ a fantasy action adventure film by Legendary Pictures starring Jeff Bridges, Julianne Morre and Ben Barnes. He is sharing composing duties with AR Rahman (‘Slumdog Millionaire’).
The award is 10,000 euros and (as seen below) a painting by former A-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen... :)
Mon, Apr 8th, 2013 8:20 PM PDT
Valio milk commercial out in Finland
Director JP Siili's 2 minute short film 'Valiojoukko' (for Finnish dairy producer Valio), stars Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Teemu Selänne, who comes to teach a little hockey player some tricks in a dreamlike fantasy. We recently worked together on JP's feature 'Once Upon a Time in the North' and reunited to score some music this commercial!
Tue, Nov 27th, 2012 2:20 PM PST
Snow Queen Ballet premieres at Finnish National Opera
Tuomas' Snow Queen Ballet premiered at the Finnish National Opera House in Helsinki on November 23rd, 2012. The 20 performances of this season were already sold out, and both music and choreography (by Kenneth Greve) received praise in all the major media outlets.
Here is a little 'trailer' made by the Opera where you can also hear some soundbites of the music:
Sun, Apr 29th, 2012 2:52 AM PDT
Snow Queen ballet in the works
Tuomas is currently working on a ballet for the National Ballet in Helsinki. The world premiere of "Snow Queen" (choreography by Kenneth Greve) will be on November 23rd in the Helsinki Opera House. Based on the classic H.C. Andersen tale, the ballet is for family audiences' Christmas time enjoyment. National Opera & Ballet "Snow Queen" website
Sun, Apr 15th, 2012 2:46 AM PDT
A score for "Purge"
Tuomas has just completed the score for feature film Purge (Puhdistus).
Purge is Antti J.'s (The Resident) second feature and is based on Sofi Oksanen's best-selling book about several generations of women living with the trauma of the Soviet regime in Estonia.
For Purge, Tuomas recorded violin solos with violinist Victoria Mullova in Helsinki, Finland.
The orchestral score was recorded in Budapest and mixed by Geoff Foster at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Tuomas recently finished scoring director JP Siili's "Once Upon a Time in the North" (Härmä), a movie about the "Wild West" of Finland, Ostrobotnia, in the 19th century. The Finnish film was release in theaters country-wide in February and is still going strong.
The music was recorded in Budapest and features solo singing by Karoliina Kantelinen, Tuomas' sister, who is a singer and ethnomusicologist.
The Italian Key, a movie scored and produced by Tuomas Kantelinen, starts its theatrical release in Finland on December 16th, 2011. The romantic fairytale is directed by Rosa Karo and was shot on location in Italy, India and U.K.
Fritz en Freddy, a Belgian production by Independent Films, is out in Dutch-speaking territories and is doing brilliantly at the box office. Tuomas worked with the director before on both Lemo and the second season of the Matrioshki TV series.
Sat, Oct 29th, 2011 4:28 AM PDT
Music for Finnish movie "Princess" (Prinsessa)
Recently out in Finland - Princess, with a score by Tuomas Kantelinen.
Tue, Sep 14th, 2010 1:30 AM PDT
Tuomas scoring and producing "The Italian Key"
Tuomas has been hard at work with music for The Italian Key, an English-language romantic fairytale that was shot on location in Italy, India and UK. He is both a producer and the composer, so he has been very involved in many aspects of the production. In addition to that, he recently scored Finnish movie "The Princess" (Prinsessa), as well as Sergei Bodrov's ("Mongol" director) Russian comedy "Yakuza Girl" (both movies opened in early fall), and worked on several commercials in Scandinavia.
"Arn - The Knight Templar" international version out
Swedish historical epic Arn featured two movies in Sweden, but for international use the story has now been condensed into one feature film. Kind of a Scandinavian take on "Kingdom of God", the movie follows a young Templar's life, forbidden love and his trip to Jerusalem. Tuomas scored both movies for Danish director Peter Flinth, as well as the six-part TV series and the international version of the film.
Mon, Apr 27th, 2009 7:06 PM PDT
Belgian "Lemo" gets a score by Kantelinen
Tuomas recently finished a Belgian children's film, Lemo ("Lemonade") and is currently in pre-production of his first foray into producing, a movie called The Italian Key. The film will be shot on location in Italy, UK and India and will naturally be scored by Tuomas himself.
Sat, Dec 20th, 2008 8:35 AM PST
Arn sequel huge in Scandinavia
What's been up this fall... Arn - The Knight Templar sequel came out in Europe, and Genghis Khan continued to conquer new territories with Mongol! Tuomas has been working on Vivi Friedman's Driving Lessons and Belgian children's movie Limo, as well as a few other projects coming up next year...
Thu, Jul 31st, 2008 10:07 AM PDT
"Mongol" soundtrack available!
The soundtrack of Mongol has been released by Varese Sarabande and is also available on iTunes!
Sun, May 4th, 2008 10:02 PM PDT
ARN 2 TRAILER
The sequel for Scandinavia's biggest budget feature Arn - Knight Templar is in the works and Tuomas is composing and recording this month. Check out the movie's trailer:
Wed, Apr 16th, 2008 10:09 PM PDT
MONGOL TRAILER
Sergei Bodrov's Genghis Khan epic Mongol is coming out in the US and UK June 6th. Tuomas scored the movie last year with three different orchestras in London, St. Petersburg and Hamburg. Varese Sarabande is releasing the soundtrack CD.
Tuomas is working on the Belgian TV drama Matrioshki, a 10 part series on human trafficking. The Quest for a Heart CD is out in Finland and is available also through CDbaby.
Tue, Jan 22nd, 2008 5:27 PM PST
Sergei Bodrov's Genghis Khan epic Mongol made it to the shortlist of the five Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Picture! Listen to some of Tuomas' orchestral cues here - and a few more cues here!
Check out the trailer at distributor Picturehouse's website. A soundtrack is in the works, too!
Wed, Dec 19th, 2007 3:41 PM PST
Quest for a Heart is in theatres now!
Arn-Knight Templar is in theatres now!
I am on Holiday now!
Thanks for all of You who have been checking my site throughout the year.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and lots of happiness for the New Year 2008!
For the next year I promise something special...
Love and Peace!
Tuomas
Sun, Nov 4th, 2007 7:26 PM PST
Quest for a Heart is coming out in December - listen to some of the cues here! Tuomas has been recording music for Arn The Knight Templar all of last week in London with the LSO and will conduct the last sessions for the film on Nov 6th - a sneak pre-listen here...
The whole Arn score is available on iTunes as well!
Sat, Oct 6th, 2007 11:13 AM PDT
Tuomas has been working on the Swedish epic movie "Arn - Knight Templar" and just finished recording the last cues for the animated feature "Quest for a Heart". He will record for Arn again at the end of October and beginning of November. On the classical side, his suite "Juri and Julia in Ostrobotnia" for orchestra and singers will premiere in Vaasa, Finland, on November 22nd.
Also recently out: coffee commercial "Fantasia" with Tuomas' music.
Tuomas will be recording first sessions for Knight Templar in London at Air Studios next week, and is off to Toronto shortly after that, to attend Mongol's world festival premiere on September 8th. To celebrate that, a sneak pre-listen of some music from the upcoming Ghenghis Khan epic.
Wed, Jun 27th, 2007 10:32 AM PDT
Tuomas is working on two very different historical epic movies: the other one a story about the Crusades and a Swedish knight templar called Arn (trailer music not by Kantelinen), the other the movie about the youth of Genghis Khan, Mongol. Next weekend Tuomas will be attending SonCineMad in Madrid!
Fri, Mar 2nd, 2007 1:35 PM PST
The soundtrack of The Year of the Wolf has been released and is available in shops in Scandinavia, as well as through several online shops internationally, such as CDbaby. Listen to some samples from the music here. It's also available for listen and download (album or individual tracks) on Apple iTunes!
Mon, Dec 18th, 2006 3:53 PM PST
A couple of cues from the upcoming animated feature "Quest for a Heart", recorded and mixed last week at Air Studios in London.
Sat, Nov 18th, 2006 9:05 PM PST
Tuomas is just back from London where he was recording music for the movie "The Year of the Wolf" at Air Lyndhurst Studios with the loyal - and brilliant - recording engineer Geoff Foster... A little sneak pre-listen of some of the cues here!
Sat, Nov 4th, 2006 5:32 PM PST
The European Film Academy has just announced the nominations for this years European Film Awards. Nominated for "EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2006" are Alberto Iglesias for VOLVER, Tuomas Kantelinen for ?IDEIST? PARHAIN (Mother of Mine), Dario Marianelli for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and Gabriel Yared & St?phane Moucha for DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN (The Lives of Others)!
Listen to some music from Mother of Mine here!
Sat, Oct 21st, 2006 7:33 AM PDT
Sorry for the long silence! Tuomas has been busy this fall with several projects and will be recording lots of music for various movies and their trailers in London and Russia during the month of November. Before that he will attend the screening of the documentary Hacking Democracy (formerly known as Votergate) in NYC, prior to its broadcasting on HBO from November 2nd onwards. Read more about the documentary on the pitfalls of electronic voting, or check out the broadcasting schedule! Tuomas will also be introducing the opening film Mother of Mine with director Klaus H?r? at the AFI European Union film showcase in Washington D.C. on November 2nd.
Fri, Jul 14th, 2006 8:56 AM PDT
Tuomas had a fun time in Madrid at the SonCineMad festival and thanks everyone he met there! He is still working on Career Day and just got to know about a very exciting new gig that is still top secret so be back for more! ;D
He will travel to Moscow to work on Quest For A Heart next week and will be in L.A. for most of August and September.
Fri, Jun 16th, 2006 11:56 AM PDT
Tuomas is working now on an animated feature called "Quest for a Heart". He is finishing work on the documentary Votergate and the family film Career Day. He has been quite the festival junkie, visiting Cannes Film Festival, Annecy Festival for animated films and he is still looking forward to attending SonCineMad in Madrid during the last weekend of June...
Tue, May 9th, 2006 9:12 AM PDT
From the movie Aleksis (about the life of Finnish national poet Aleksis Kivi), a happy tune to celebrate a "Ride Through the Countryside"!
Mon, Apr 24th, 2006 9:48 PM PDT
This week's archive pick, a nice waltzy tune to celebrate spring: "Priest Goes Waltz" from the otherwise quite sad and melancholy film Redemption (1997).
And here's how to pronounce that difficult name: Can-te-linen (like the fabric)... :D
Tuomas' last name comes from "Kantele", that is actually an old traditional Finnish string instrument so it happens to be a very musical name too! You can see what the instrument looks like here, but of course that player looks nothing like Tuomas! Well, maybe in another 60 years...
From a few years back, a mobile operator's ad called "The Boy and the Cow" with music by Kantelinen, directed by Olli Saarela (Quicktime).
Thu, Mar 23rd, 2006 12:55 PM PST
From the composer's archive this week, an animation song demo for The Emperor's New Clothes ! Those with sharp ears may hear Tuomas himself singing the Emperor's only line...
Tue, Mar 14th, 2006 7:24 AM PST
This week's archive pick: "Dating Ken Dolls" from Vivi Friedman's Fox Searchlab film Certainly Not A Fairytale.
Tue, Feb 28th, 2006 11:55 PM PST
From Tuomas' own archives this week: the Main Theme from the Swedish movie The Threat.
Thu, Feb 9th, 2006 9:43 PM PST
Serendipity! A few of Tuomas' recent compositions here for a few days, just for those who happen to cross paths...
Can you still take it? A fifth little cue that's called Life!
Available only here and for a limited time... Maybe! ;)
Thu, Feb 2nd, 2006 7:14 PM PST
Movie Music UK reviews the score of Mother of Mine and shortlists three Kantelinen scores on their Best of 2005 list. Another review is available here...
Mon, Jan 16th, 2006 5:36 AM PST
Mother of Mine wins Audience Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival! Also, on Sunday, it opens the Scandinavian Film Festival of L.A. In attendance at both events: producer Ilkka Matila, director Klaus H?r?, composer Tuomas Kantelinen.
Sun, Jan 1st, 2006 6:18 AM PST
Mother of Mine (MIR-101) and The Promise (MIR-102) soundtracks (by Miracle Records Finland) have been released in December 2005 and are available in shops in Finland and Sweden, as well as through CDbaby. Listen to a sample from Mother of Mine or The Promise.
Fri, Dec 30th, 2005 12:49 AM PST
Mother of Mine will be featured at the Palm Springs Film Festival and screens there on Jan 7th and 14th. It has completed a two-week run at select Laemmle theatres in Los Angeles and will be opening the Scandinavian Film Festival on January 15th at 2 p.m.
Here is what Gunnar Rehlin says about the music in his Variety review: "As in "Elina," Haro's direction is slow and somewhat old-fashioned, with Jarkko T. Laine's widescreen lensing often contrasting the wide open landscapes of southern Sweden with the murky interiors of the farmhouse, where time seems to stand still. In some sequences, all natural sound is removed, with a melancholy piano tune used instead, to striking effect."
Tue, Dec 20th, 2005 11:08 PM PST
Tuomas is working at the moment in his studio in Helsinki, Finland, on two projects - a martial arts film called Honor and a feature documentary about the malfunctioning voting machines in the US called Votergate. He has just finished scoring Matti, a biopic of the Finnish ski jumping champion Matti Nyk?nen, produced by Solar Films, and a trailer for upcoming Finnish horror film Martinin pirut.
Tue, Dec 20th, 2005 10:49 PM PST
Mother of Mine continues its winning streak and goes home with the Satellite Award for Best Foreign movie of the year! Tuomas was present at the luncheon at Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on Saturday Dec. 17th - the award was accepted by producer Ilkka Matila who dedicated the film to all the mothers and children in war zones, since they are the innocent ones and often suffer the most. See what it's all about here!
Thu, Oct 27th, 2005 2:49 PM PDT
The long-awaited "Mother of Mine" soundtrack has been released by Miracle Records and is now available in music stores in Finland and Sweden. The record has 25 orchestral cues from the film, with a total running time of nearly an hour.
Fri, Oct 21st, 2005 2:48 PM PDT
Finnish premiere of "Mother of Mine" in Helsinki was on the 30th of September. The film tells the story of one of the 70.000 Finnish children that were moved to safety to neutral Sweden during WWII. Critics gave rave reviews and audiences seem to love the movie too, keeping the flow to cinemas steady for over 3 weeks already.
Mon, Sep 26th, 2005 2:48 PM PDT
Renny Harlin's dark thriller "Mindhunters" is released on DVD. The movie, starring LL Cool J, Val Kilmer, Christian Slater and Katherine Morris features music by Tuomas Kantelinen.
Mon, Sep 19th, 2005 2:47 PM PDT
"Mother of Mine", Klaus Haro's film with Tuomas Kantelinen music, is first runner-up for the prestigious People's Choice Audience Award at the Toronto film festival. Of all the 319 films screened at the festival, South African "Tsotsi" wins by a few votes. The film is also Finland's candidate to compete for "Best foreign language" Oscar.
