Elis Pehkonen

The English composer with the Finnish name

  • The Composer
  • The Music
    • Turning World CD
    • Chamber Music
      • Irinna’s Song
      • Mountain Sketches
      • Tara’s Harp
      • Travel Sonata
    • Choral Music
      • Russian Requiem
      • Buccinate Tuba
      • The First Coming
      • Gloria
      • Laudate
      • Ode to Saint Cecilia
      • Requiem Missa Pro Defunctis
      • Suffolk Canticles
    • Orchestral Music
      • 13th Century Dances
      • The Death of Barquentine
      • Over the Water
      • The Sunset and Evening Star
      • Viola Concerto
    • Vocal Music
      • Alleluia
      • Four Russian Songs
      • Song of the Turtle Dove
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Elis Pehkonen: Composer of 200 works in most genres

My father, Sulo Pehkonen, was born in Karelia, near the Russian border. During the 1917 Finnish Winter War with the Russian Bolsheviks, he was separated from his parents and taken to England by a British soldier.

Who suffered most because of Lenin & Stalin? Not just the Finns and other nation states of Eastern Europe but the whole of Russia. This must not be forgotten and is why I composed “The Russian Requiem”.

Elis Pehkonen portrait

WWI Requiem Concert in Ripon

11.01.2015 by admin //

Elis Pehkonen will be present November 14th for the Ripon Choral Society‘s performance of The Russian Requiem, part of their Autumn Concert WWI Commemoration Series.

  • Ripon Choral Society / Academy of St Olave’s
  • 14 November 2015, 7:30PM
  • Ripon Cathedral, Ripon, North Yorkshire
  • £20 – £18. Buy tickets  at RiponChoralSociety.org.uk.

Pekhonen, Russian Requiem
Haydn, Mass in Time of War

“Experience Pehkonen’s remarkable Requiem featuring extracts from Boris Pasternak’s Zhivago’s Poems and Dante’s Inferno. Pehkonen’s Finnish father became separated from his parents during the 1917 war against the Russian Bolsheviks and was brought to England by a British soldier. Hear how his English son interprets poignant historical events. Then, hear us sing Haydn’s magnificent Mass, written whist Napoleon was riding roughshod over Austria’s armies.”

John Dunford – Conductor, Orchestra D’Amici
Samantha Hay – Soprano
Julianne Young – Mezzo-soprano
Stephen Newlove- Tenor
Philip Wilcox – Bass

“What an amazing experience is in store for the audience who are coming to the performance of the Pehkonen Russian Requiem. . . . The vigorous Dies Irae is unbelievable – hear the traditional mass interspersed with Pasternak poetry to bring the horrors of war to life.”
~Ripon Choral Society on Facebook

Categories // News

Suomalaissyntyinen Britti Kirjoitti Venäläisen Requiemin

09.03.2013 by admin //

Prefer to read the story of Elis Pehkonen and his father Sulo Pehkonen in Finnish? You can read a version via The Requiem Collections of Pentti Kauppi and Pentti Ruokonen at Requiem.fi.

Pentti Kauppi, “Suomalaissyntyinen Britti Kirjoitti Venäläisen Requiemin,” Requiem.fi
http://requiem.fi/elis-pehkonen-suomalaissyntyinen-britti-kirjoitti-venalaisen-requiemin/

Categories // The Composer

Musical Fireworks

07.14.2012 by admin //

“A concert in Aldeburgh Parish Church on Saturday 14th July 2012 at 6pm will celebrate composer Elis Pehkonen’s 70th birthday. The programme will include recent works by Gordon Crosse, Peter Hope, Elis Pehkonen, Jane Wells (Occasional Dancing/see news-publication) and Christopher Wright alongside popular pieces by Bach, Handel, Gounod, Purcell and Saint-Saens.

“The performers are Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano), John Turner and Liz Page (recorders), Danielle Perrett (harp), Fenella Humphreys (violin), Helen Reid (piano), David Wright (harpsichord), Jeremy Hughes (‘cello) and Diggory Seacombe (timpani and percussion).”

Categories // The Composer

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Upcoming Performances

Nov 14th Elis Pehkonen will be present for the performance of The Russian Requiem at Ripon Cathedral.

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Blog

  • WWI Requiem Concert in Ripon
  • Suomalaissyntyinen Britti Kirjoitti Venäläisen Requiemin
  • Musical Fireworks
  • Carillon Performs Vision in a Dream
  • Amor Vincit Omnia review

Links Familial

  • Nic Pehkonen
  • Marc Pehkonen
  • Lori Taylor Pehkonen
  • Eliza Pehkonen

Links Musical

  • British Music Information Centre
  • Music hire from Oxford University Press
  • Patron of Birmingham Festival Choral Society

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