Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

Susanne Kujala

Susanne Kujala is a Finland-based German concert organist. She performs as a soloist, a chamber musician and an improviser. She has performed, for example, at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Ultima Festival Oslo, the Carinthischer Sommer and the Toulouse Les Orgues Festival. In 2023 she will perform organ recitals at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg in April and Auditorio de Música Madrid in October.

Together with Eckhard Manz, Susanne Kujala served as Artistic Director of BRANDNEU 2022 in Kassel, Germany, a festival with over 30 premieres of new works by composers from all over Europe. She is also a jury member of the International Kaija Saariaho Organ Composition Competition.

From 1996–99 she studied at Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin classical accordion and instrumental coaching. In 1998 she moved to Finland and studied at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki classical accordion and organ gaining her Master of Music in 2006. In 2013 she gained her artistic Doctor of Music -degree 2013 at the University of the Arts / Sibelius Academy focusing on “Organ – an Instrument for Contemporary Music”. She teaches organ performance, chamber music and the history of organ art at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki since 2009.

Kujala’s discography includes her debut CD Organ Triptychon recorded on three significant organs of Helsinki, Veli Kujala’s CD Hyperorganism including his organ concerto CybOrgan, the digital release Songs Of A Lost Land Vol I with improvisations for horn and organ by Pip Eastop and Susanne Kujala, her CD Bach on Porthan Organ and her newest CD Organ Music of the 21st Century. In December 2021 she released the Well-tempered Clavier part I by J. S. Bach digitally, which she recorded on her classical accordion in well temperament (Lehman tuning).

Collaboration with composers is an essential part of her musical work. Kujala has premiered over 60 works including four concertos and works for microtonal organ (Fokker organ with 31-tone equal temperament at the Muziekgebouw aan t’IJ in Amsterdam and the Rieger organ at St. Martin in Kassel with a quarter-tone manual). In 2022 she premiered new works by Moritz Eggert, Fabien Lévy, J. F. W. Schneider, and Jukka Tiensuu among others and the Concerto for Organ and Big Band Gandai by Markus Fagerudd together with the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra conducted by Jukka Linkola. Upcoming premieres are a large chamber music work by Sebastian Hilli for organ and defunensemble, solo works by Lotta Wennäkoski and Veli Kujala, and the Organ Concerto by Matthew Whittall, a commission of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.