‘At the end of 2005 I got an amazing chance to compose and orchestrate a full musical for a symphonic orchestra. After reading the very first lines of the text by a talented writer/director/composer Antti Viitamäki, ideas started flowing’, Lehtiniemi explains eagerly.

Please hit the ‘PLAY’-button below to listen to a short overview of the songs from the musical while reading further:

‘I had written an overture earlier, but it wasn’t until four months before the premiere when I really started working. I sat at a cafe all day long, orchestrating my ideas and the very last week my sleeping rhythm was all messed up: I woke up at 4 in the afternoon, orchestrated until I was hungry, had a 30-minute pause for eating and then kept on working until 6 in the morning or later if I didn’t fall asleep. This resulted writing and composing the six last songs in five days. Needless to say, it was a relief to have it finally ready. After this it was all joy.

Conducting the orchestra was assigned to an awesome conductor and my friend Satu Simola. Before this I had no idea how important a conductor is, but after seeing what she did - bringing my score into life - I had no doubt that it was because of her why the music became how it became.

This was my very first big orchestration assignment and that’s where it all started. Listening to the words of Simola, I finally gave up my solo piano studies and started to follow my own path that should’ve been obvious a long time ago. I decided to become a composer.’

Read more at www.ruusunvarjo.com (in Finnish only).