Samu Metsänen (born 1985) is a versatile music professional who works in a wide range of musical productions as a musician, producer, and educator.
Metsänen graduated with a Master's degree in Music from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, majoring in performance arts under the guidance of Pekka Savijoki. He has furthered his studies through numerous masterclasses and has also studied instrumental pedagogy and music technology in addition to saxophone.
Metsänen currently serves as the principal saxophonist of the President’s Own Guards Band (Kaartin soittokunta), the official military band of Finland. He is an experienced orchestral musician and has also performed with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in St. Petersburg and numerous Finnish symphony orchestras.
He has performed as a soloist with several ensembles and orchestras and is an active performer in chamber music both in Finland and abroad. One of his regular groups is the Saxophone Quartet Aava. Metsänen has performed in the United States, the Nordic countries, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, and across Finland at festivals such as Tampere Biennale, Turku Music Festival, Crusell Music Festival, Lieksa Brass Week, Hauho Music Festival, Soiva Akatemia concert series, Musica Nova Helsinki, Sibafest, and Pasimusic Festival.
In recent years, Metsänen has premiered works by composers such as Meriheini Luoto, Tuomas Turriago, Paavo Korpijaakko, Veli Kujala, and Sampo Kasurinen. Kasurinen’s composition "Tacet" (completed in August 2021) is the first orchestral work written specifically for Metsänen.
In addition to performing, Metsänen has also built a career as a recording producer, working on recordings for various orchestras and performing artists. He has served as the artistic and musical producer for several releases by the Guards Band of the Finnish Defence Forces.
Metsänen is a well-respected educator, having taught saxophone at all levels of music education. He has also served as a juror for the Estonian Music Schools Association's wind instrument competitions.
Metsänen's musical career has been supported by various grants from organizations such as the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Teosto, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike),
the Helsinki Music Centre Foundation and the Madetoja Foundation.
"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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