Iiro Rantala

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Lost Heroes
  FI 26th 10/2011 (1 week)
My History of Jazz
  FI 44 40/2012 (2 weeks)
My Working Class Hero
  FI 23 36/2015 (2 weeks)
My Finnish Calendar
  FI 81 12/22/2019 (1 week)

Iiro Rantala (born January 19, 1970 in Helsinki ) is a Finnish composer and jazz pianist .

Live and act

Rantala received lessons at the music schools of Käpylä and Oulunkylä. Then he studied jazz piano in the jazz department of the Sibelius Academy and classical piano in the Manhattan School of Music . First he played in Big Bad Family . In 1990 he founded the trio Töykeät (~ "Grobiane"), with whom he performed at numerous jazz festivals in Europe over the next 15 years and released eight albums. He also played with the Tango Kings , Rajaton and Pekka Kuusisto . He also composed symphonic works, such as the Concerto for Piano and Concerto in G♯ΔA ♭, recorded in 2006 with the Tapiola Sinfonietta . In 2008 he appeared with a new formation with guitarist Marzi Nyman and beatboxer Felix Zenger, the Iiro Rantala New Trio , which released the record Elmo . In 2011 he presented a solo album called Lost Heros , which received the German Record Critics' Award 2011 and was awarded the ECHO Jazz 2012 as Album of the Year. At the Theaterhaus Festival in Stuttgart in 2011 he played in a duo with Jasper van't Hof . At the Jazzfest Berlin in 2011 he performed in a duo with percussionist Jonatan Sarikoski .

On the album My History of Jazz 2012, Rantala improvised on compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach , among other things , since, in his opinion, jazz began with him. In addition to humorous arrangements of jazz standards, some own compositions are also included. After a solo album, on which he interpreted songs by John Lennon , in 2017 he recorded the album Mozart, Bernstein, Lennon with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen , which received the "International Classical Music Award". In 2020, the album Iiro Rantala Playing Gershwin followed with the Kammerphilharmonie (which also contains his own works based on Rantala's understanding of Gershwin).

His opera Sanatorio Express (Finnish original title: Pikaparantola ) premiered on September 27, 2018 at the Finnish National Opera.

Discographic notes

  • Iiro Rantala String Trio Anyone with a Heart (ACT, 2014) with Adam Bałdych and Asja Valčić
  • It Takes Two to Tango (ACT, 2015) with Jukka Perko
  • My Working Class Hero (ACT, 2015)
  • Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic VI- Piano Night (ACT 2017) with Michael Wollny and Leszek Mozdzer
  • My Finish Calendar (ACT, 2019)
  • Iiro Rantala & Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen: Playing Gershwin (ACT, 2020)

Web links

Commons : Iiro Rantala  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Chart sources: Finland / Switzerland
  2. Theaterhaus Festival 2011
  3. ^ JazzFest Berlin 2011: Iiro Rantala
  4. Jazz and Humor , Spiegel online from October 13, 2012, accessed October 17, 2012
  5. Meeting (Jazzthing)
  6. ^ Sanatorio Express. Performance information on the Finnish National Opera website , accessed October 27, 2018.
  7. Awards: DE