Mr. Saku Nousiainen, pianist, composer and arranger, was born
and raised in Finland. He has worked professionally since he was
16, and has performed both in Europe and the United States.
During the last few years he has been active, especially in the
music scenes of Greenwich Village and New York City.

Saku is appreciated for his gentle, technically clear self-expression
and melodic beauty, as well as his sensitive musical interaction. He
has a strong command of American jazz and European improvised
music traditions, but he has also worked with artists in pop and
commercial music. Lately, Saku has performed or recorded with
Darius Jones, Ron McClure, Cecil Taylor and Dan Venne.

Currently, Saku is composing new music for octet, the unusual
frontline which includes: bass clarinet, trumpet, tenor saxophone Mr. Saku Nousiainen, pianist, composer and arranger, was born
and raised in Finland. He has worked professionally since he was
16, and has performed both in Europe and the United States.
During the last few years he has been active, especially in the
music scenes of Greenwich Village and New York City.

Saku is appreciated for his gentle, technically clear self-expression
and melodic beauty, as well as his sensitive musical interaction. He
has a strong command of American jazz and European improvised
music traditions, but he has also worked with artists in pop and
commercial music. Lately, Saku has performed or recorded with
Darius Jones, Ron McClure, Cecil Taylor and Dan Venne.

Currently, Saku is composing new music for octet, the unusual
frontline which includes: bass clarinet, trumpet, tenor saxophone
and trombone. He is also exploring polyrhythms, metric
modulations and Indian rhythms. Saku stresses process,
exploration, and devotion to deep and personal self-expression in
his music. His latest interest is film scoring, which he has studied at
New York University with Michael Patterson and Ron Sadoff.

As Saku considers playing and learning inseparable in music, he has
participated in developing music education. For example, he has
worked on renewing the national curricula of improvised music in
Finland. For the last five years Saku has, along with his career in
music, made internationally groundbreaking studies for developing
education of improvised music. He is currently researching
innovative knowledge-communities as a new and better way to
educate aspiring musicians.

Saku Nousiainen holds a Master's degree in Jazz Performance from
New York University. He studied with Ralph Alessi, George Garzone,
Gil Goldstein, Jim McNeely, Tony Moreno, Dave Pietro and Kenny
Werner and graduated with excellent grades. He has also studied
privately with Fred Hersch, Dave Kikoski, Edward Simon and Hector
Martignon. He is currently finishing his Master's studies in music
education at the Sibelius Academy in Finland.

Saku Nousiainen has been awarded two Fulbright grants, and
various other grants from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and
Wihuri Foundation.

www.sakunousiainen.com

SAKU NOUSIAINEN