Tuomas A. TurunenTuomas A. Turunen is an award-winning Finnish jazz pianist and composer, known as a solo artist and as a member of several Nordic jazz groups, especially Emil Brandqvist Trio. He is a frequent performer at jazz venues throughout Europe and at festivals such as Elbjazz, Jazz Baltica, Montreux Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz, Torino Jazz Festival, Jazz à Porquerolles and Jazz à Dakar.
Tuomas lived in Sweden from 2004 until 2009 and studied jazz piano at the Music Academy of Gothenburg with Lars Jansson and Anders Jormin as his teachers. Since obtaining his Master of Music degree in 2009, he has been based in France, working as a musician and composer.
Tuomas has released over 20 albums with his different groups. He was awarded the Jazz Scholarship of Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2009 and In 2010 he won the Jury's Special Price at Montreux Jazz Festival's piano competition. Tuomas A. Turunen is the pianist of Emil Brandqvist Trio that has been cited as “one of the best European piano trios at the moment” (DPA). Among other accomplishments, the trio has obtained the prestigious ECHO-jazz award nomination, the German Schallplattenkritik Award and multiple Top-10 positions in the German Jazz charts. |
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Full Biography
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Tuomas A. Turunen, born in 1980 and hailing from Kontiolahti, Eastern Finland, started to play piano and compose music at the age of 5. He was self taught for almost 10 years until he became interested in jazz and entered the Joensuu Conservatory where he studied from 1994 to 2000.
Alongside music, Tuomas was interested also in science, and in his early 20's he started to study mathematics at the University of Jyväskylä. However, he continued his music studies simultaneously at the Jyväskylä Music Conservatory, where he completed a professional musician diploma between 2001 and 2004. |
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Tuomas integrated rapidly into the lively music scene of Jyväskylä, performing regularly at the local jazz club and at the jazz festivals of the region. At that time he played together with many rising stars of Finnish jazz, for example Kalevi Louhivuori, Jori Huhtala and Joonas Leppänen. Beside his studies he worked as a piano teacher at the Mikkeli Music Academy and at the Jyväskylä Music Conservatory. Tuomas left mathematics little by little, and in 2004 he moved to Sweden in order to start piano studies at the University of Gothenburg.
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Tuomas' teachers in Gothenburg included some of the top names in Swedish jazz such as Lars Jansson and Anders Jormin. He had the opportunity to work with numerous talented Nordic musicians, which led to the forming of several bands including Emil Brandqvist Trio, Skalle & Sharon (with Pauli Lyytinen on saxophone and Andreas Werliin / Tatu Rönkkö on drums), Kauhukakara (featuring Anni Elif Egecioglu on vocal and violoncello) TTTrio (with Jacob Öhrval and Christian Nilson) and Tura's Garden (with Viktor Turegård and Sidney Rash).
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As having obtained a black belt in the Korean martial art Han Moo Do, Tuomas became one of the founders and instructors of the first Han Moo Do clubs in Sweden. He had been training martial arts since the age of 17, and according to Tuomas himself, eastern philosophy has influenced his musical expression and the way of practicing his instrument.
During his Sweden years, Tuomas was known as an active and versatile pianist; he had up to 20 different music projects ongoing simultaneously, including modern jazz, free improvisation, Middle Eastern music, Nordic folk music, South-American and African styles, pop and classical music. The opportunities for international performances increased continuously, especially in Nordic countries but also across Europe and on the African continent. Tuomas studied also composition and wrote music for most of his groups. On his last year of the university studies in 2009, Tuomas was awarded the Scholarship of the Royal Swedish Academy.
During his Sweden years, Tuomas was known as an active and versatile pianist; he had up to 20 different music projects ongoing simultaneously, including modern jazz, free improvisation, Middle Eastern music, Nordic folk music, South-American and African styles, pop and classical music. The opportunities for international performances increased continuously, especially in Nordic countries but also across Europe and on the African continent. Tuomas studied also composition and wrote music for most of his groups. On his last year of the university studies in 2009, Tuomas was awarded the Scholarship of the Royal Swedish Academy.
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After obtaining his Master of Music degree (2004-2009), Tuomas started to work full time as a freelance musician, composer and entrepreneur. Shortly after having moved to France in 2010, he won the Jury's Special Price at Montreux Jazz Festival's solo piano competition. This encouraged him to start to develop his solo piano career in Finland and France. On the French jazz scene Tuomas started a new project called We Are Birds, a trio that blends jazz, indie-pop and electronic music and is known for their long-term production work as well as for their exceptional guest artists such as Arnold McCuller, Blick Bassy, Hannah Tolf and Ulrich “Yul” Edorh.
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In 2012 Tuomas received a grant from the Arts Council of Finland, which allowed him to concentrate on writing music for string ensembles and big band. The following year Emil Brandqvist Trio made a recording contract with the German record label Skip Records. With their first album Breathe Out (2013), the trio was discovered by the media and audiences especially in Germany. In Finland Tuomas focused on his solo piano project and released his first solo piano album Karelia Inspiration (Pilfink Records, 2013) that combines improvised jazz with Finnish, Swedish and Slavic music tradition.
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Emil Brandqvist Trio's successful development continued with the next release Seascapes (2015) that was nominated for the prestigious German ECHO Jazz -prize. The album got a 5-star review titled "Magical music" from Der Stern, and the group was cited as “one of the best European piano trios at the moment” by DPA. The next release Falling Crystals (2016) obtained the Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Award and was the album of the week on the German national culture radio.
While Emil Brandqvist Trio's music started to reach public in Europe, Japan, South-Korea and South-Africa, Tuomas launched his new "The Wine Composer" project, together with the French wine specialist and photographer Matthieu Guinard. Already some years earlier, Tuomas and Matthieu had developed a personal language for describing wines with music and images instead of words. Now they used this language for creating a multisensorial performance, which was presented to public at the Wine Expo fair in Helsinki 2016. The project was introduced on several newspapers and magazines, as well as on the Finnish MTV3-channel. In 2017 Skip Records proposed to make a solo piano recording with Tuomas and brought him to work together with the world-class sound engineer Stefano Amerio. The new solo piano album Ornaments of Time was released in February 2018. Suomijazz.com gave the album 5/5 stars citing it as “Master's work” and the Austrian Kulturzeitschrift wrote “The Finn meets listener’s soul directly”. Tuomas was introduced as solo artist on German jazz magazines JazzThing, Jazzthetique and Jazz Podium, the French Vumètre Magazine and the Finnish newspapers Karjalainen and Heili. |
Emil Brandqvist Trio's fourth album Within a Dream was released in April 2018, and directly reached the 3rd position on the German jazz charts. It also made a breakthrough in the digital distribution and has got over 12 millions of streams on different streaming platforms. Emil, Tuomas and Max made their first TV appearances together as the TV-channels 3Sat and ZDF put the spotlight on the trio's new music.
The following year brought noteworthy opportunities to Tuomas' solo project as he gave piano recitals at the Steingraeber & Söhne concert hall, Fazioli Masters Festival and Piano di Primo concert series. Another highlight of the year was Skip Record's 20 years celebration at Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, where Tuomas featured as a solo artist and with Emil Brandqvist Trio. Some months later, the concert was released as a live album titled "The Concert".
The year 2020 started with two new releases, No Return (We Are Birds) and Entering the Woods (Emil Brandqivst Trio). Unfortunately, the positive expectations turned into a dissapointment as the worldwide coronavirus pandemic resulted to the cancellation of of nearly all the release concerts of the year. Nevertheless, Entering the Woods made it to the top 10 of the German Jazz Charts (March 2020) and got nearly 3 million streams on Spotify during the first nine months. Emil Brandqvist Trio's performance at Leverkusen Jazztage was broadcasted by WDR and also reached thousands of listeners on internet, which provided a positive ending to the unusual year.
The following year brought noteworthy opportunities to Tuomas' solo project as he gave piano recitals at the Steingraeber & Söhne concert hall, Fazioli Masters Festival and Piano di Primo concert series. Another highlight of the year was Skip Record's 20 years celebration at Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, where Tuomas featured as a solo artist and with Emil Brandqvist Trio. Some months later, the concert was released as a live album titled "The Concert".
The year 2020 started with two new releases, No Return (We Are Birds) and Entering the Woods (Emil Brandqivst Trio). Unfortunately, the positive expectations turned into a dissapointment as the worldwide coronavirus pandemic resulted to the cancellation of of nearly all the release concerts of the year. Nevertheless, Entering the Woods made it to the top 10 of the German Jazz Charts (March 2020) and got nearly 3 million streams on Spotify during the first nine months. Emil Brandqvist Trio's performance at Leverkusen Jazztage was broadcasted by WDR and also reached thousands of listeners on internet, which provided a positive ending to the unusual year.
Discography
2023 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Layers of Life (Skip Records)
2022 Tuomas A. Turunen: Lifesparks (Skip Records)
2021 Triggerfish: Silver Lining (Triggerfish)
2020 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Entering the Woods (Skip Records)
2020 We Are Birds: No Return (Nutsy Productions)
2018 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Within a Dream (Skip Records)
2018 Tuomas A. Turunen: Ornaments of Time (Skip Records)
2017 Anni Elif Egecioglu: Edith (Eclipse Music)
2016 We Are Birds: Live Somewhere (Nutsy productions)
2016 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Falling Crystals (Skip Records)
2015 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Seascapes (Skip Records)
2013 Tuomas Turunen: Karelia Inspiration (Pilfink Records)
2013 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Breathe Out (Skip Records)
2012 Million Marks: Complex Simplicity (Pilfink Records)
2011 Kauhukakara: Fanfaari Eläimille (Eclipse Music)
2011 Musiikkiryhmä LuoTu: Valot Tuhannet II (LuoTu)
2010 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Pappas Vardagsrum (Frostros Records)
2009 Skalle & Sharon: Mainio Matka (Eclipse Music)
2009 Musiikkiryhmä LuoTu: Valot Tuhannet I (LuoTu)
2008 TTTRIO: Ringaren (Pilfink Records)
2008 Kauhukakara: Taistelu Pahoja Kelloja Vastaan (Eclipse Music)
2007 Emil Brandqvist Orkester: Små Rum (Frostros Records)
2002 Wonga: Melpokas (Pilfink Records)
2022 Tuomas A. Turunen: Lifesparks (Skip Records)
2021 Triggerfish: Silver Lining (Triggerfish)
2020 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Entering the Woods (Skip Records)
2020 We Are Birds: No Return (Nutsy Productions)
2018 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Within a Dream (Skip Records)
2018 Tuomas A. Turunen: Ornaments of Time (Skip Records)
2017 Anni Elif Egecioglu: Edith (Eclipse Music)
2016 We Are Birds: Live Somewhere (Nutsy productions)
2016 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Falling Crystals (Skip Records)
2015 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Seascapes (Skip Records)
2013 Tuomas Turunen: Karelia Inspiration (Pilfink Records)
2013 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Breathe Out (Skip Records)
2012 Million Marks: Complex Simplicity (Pilfink Records)
2011 Kauhukakara: Fanfaari Eläimille (Eclipse Music)
2011 Musiikkiryhmä LuoTu: Valot Tuhannet II (LuoTu)
2010 Emil Brandqvist Trio: Pappas Vardagsrum (Frostros Records)
2009 Skalle & Sharon: Mainio Matka (Eclipse Music)
2009 Musiikkiryhmä LuoTu: Valot Tuhannet I (LuoTu)
2008 TTTRIO: Ringaren (Pilfink Records)
2008 Kauhukakara: Taistelu Pahoja Kelloja Vastaan (Eclipse Music)
2007 Emil Brandqvist Orkester: Små Rum (Frostros Records)
2002 Wonga: Melpokas (Pilfink Records)