Kari Tikka, who worked as an oboist and conductor, focused on spiritual topics as a composer.
Conductor and composer Kari Tikka is dead. Tika’s relatives talk about it on social media. Tikka was born in Siilinjärvi on April 13, 1946 and died on October 17, 2022. She was 76 years old when she died.
Kari Tikka began his musical career as an oboist and in the 1960s played in the Helsinki City Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra. He also studied orchestra conducting Jorma Panula in the conducting class at the Sibelius Academy and composition Joonas Kokkonen and Einojuhani Rautavaaran under. After his teenage years, he was better known as a conductor and composer than as an oboist.
Already at the beginning of his conducting career in 1970, he became the conductor of the National Opera and worked there for over 40 years. He worked as conductor of the RSO in 1972–76 and in Stockholm as conductor of the Royal Opera in 1975–77.
As a composer Tikka focused on spiritual topics. The first compositions were created already in the 1960s, and composition work continued until recent years. Solo songs play an important part in his repertoire, but especially towards the end of his career, his experience in the opera world was crystallized in spiritual operas. At the request of the Finnish Missionary Society, Tikka composed a missionary theme Friedan, which was performed in autumn 1995 at the National Opera. “Frieda-opera is not really intended for church folk”, Tikka, however said under the introductionand said that he had composed the piece primarily on the terms of an opera.
Luther-opera (1999) proved popular and has been performed at spiritual events around the world in the 21st century, also translated into English and German.
Luther too performed in 2017 at the Urkuyö ja aaria festival. Tika had a close relationship with this festival, as he was its artistic director in 2005–2011. He started in the role during the festival’s 20th anniversary, and his was also premiered at that time Kings road fair – the concert venue of the festival, Espoo Cathedral, is located along the old Kuninkaantie.
At the end of Tika’s directorship at the 2011 festival was first introduced The wind is blowing -opera, and at the same time was also completed Judit-opera. They were presented as a pair of works at the 2014 Kirkko soikoon festival.
In 2020 got his first performance Love is stronger than death -opera. “A small orchestra consists of strings, piano and percussion instruments. A fierce and even raw, primitively striking rhythm comes out of it – the music of the beast. The counterforce is the smoothly flowing paradisiacal love music with duets,” wrote HS’s music critic in his premiere review. Hannu-Ilari Lampila.
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