Biography
Iiro Rantala was born on 19 January 1970 in Helsinki, attended music schools in Käpylä and Oulunkylä, and then studied jazz piano at the Sibelius Academy and, from 1991 to 1993, classical piano at the Manhattan School of Music. In 1988 he founded Trio Töykeät, releasing eight albums before the group disbanded in 2008 and becoming one of Finland's best-known jazz musicians; since then he has led the Iiro Rantala New Trio, and since 2023 also the HEL Trio with Anton Eger and Conor Chaplin. Alongside his work as a pianist he increasingly established himself as a composer, among other things with the orchestral work "Concerto in G♯ΔA♭", recorded with the Tapiola Sinfonietta in 2006. In 2018 the Finnish National Opera premiered his first opera, "Pikaparantola" (Sanatorio Express), to a libretto by Minna Lindgren, followed in 2021 by the children's opera "Die Zaubermelodika" at the Komische Oper Berlin, again with a text by Lindgren. His albums have received several honours, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2011 and an ECHO Jazz in 2012.
On Stagelog
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