Saxophonist Samu Metsänen (b. 1985) is a versatile music professional who works extensively in various musical productions as a musician, producer and pedagogue.
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Samu Metsänen graduated as a Master of Music from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki under Pekka Savijoki as his teacher. He has taken part in many master classes and the other teachers he has been studying with include Joonatan Rautiola, Vincent David, Hans De Jong and saxophone quartet Ellipsos among others. In addition to saxophone performance Metsänen has studied music pedagogy and music technology.
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Metsänen has played as a soloist with several professional wind ensembles and orchestras in Finland. He performs actively with different kinds of chamber music ensembles in Finland and abroad. He is a founder member of the Saxophone Quartet Aava and the FinEst Saxophone Quartet. Metsänen has performed for example in the US, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Scandinavian and Baltic countries, as well as numerous music festivals in Finland.
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Metsänen works as a principal saxophone in The Guards Band of The Finnish Defense Forces, which is the representative orchestra of The President of The Republic of Finland. He has been in that position from the year 2012. The Guards Band is a full sized symphonic wind band with 42 musicians. The orchestra performs music with a wide range of different genres and occasions. Metsänen is a very experienced musician and he has also been met in several symphony orchestras – successfully even in the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.
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Samu Metsänen is a well liked and valued pedagogy who has been teaching the saxophone in Tampere Music Academy, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Sibelius-opisto Hämeenlinna. Today he teaches at Kerava Music School and in the summer at a music camp, where he has also been a teacher of a saxophone master class. He has been a regular guest member of a jury in a wind instrument competition in Estonia.
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Metsänen has premiered several compositions in recent years. "TACET", composed by Sampo Kasurinen, is the first solo work accompanied by wind orchestra witch is dedicated to him. Finnish Cultural Foundation among other foundations have supported his musician career with a different funds.
"The soloist of the Saxophone Concerto by Jukka Linkola was Samu Metsänen ... who not only created the magnificent color scheme from his instrument, but was also expressively up to the task. The magnificently expressed solo part gets space to move in the sonorous scenery of the surrounding orchestra."
Savon Sanomat 2017, Jussi Mattila
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