Jarkko is a composer based in Helsinki. We met while he was living in Berlin on a grant from the Finnish government. In our conversation we talk about the problems of post-grant life and what it’s like to write music for different types of audiences.You can check out more of his music on his SoundCloud page http://soundcloud.com/jarkko-hartikainen

podcast 5-Philip White

Composer Conversations is an outlet where composers can discuss their experiences living and working in the contemporary music world, the effect it has on their approach to music making, and hopefully in the process break down some of the mythology about what a composer is.

  In short it is a weekly interview series that focuses on the politics and daily life of the international new music scene from the point of view of the people living in it, alongside the music that the featured composer has written. These long form conversations often drift into other regions of the composer’s life outside of aesthetics and are meant to be informal, accessible, personal in nature, and above all candid.