Aulis Heikki Sallinen (born 9 April 1935) is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn, and English horn, as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera Ratsumies (The Horseman).
Sallinen was born in Salmi. During his childhood the family moved several times for his father's work, and during the Evacuation of Finnish Karelia in 1944 the family relocated to Uusikaupunki, where he went to school.
His first instruments were the violin and the piano. He learned to play both jazz and classical music. He spent much time during his teenage years improvising. After a while, he began writing his ideas down on paper and began serious composition. He attended the Sibelius Academy of Music and studied with a number of teachers such as Aarre Merikanto and Joonas Kokkonen.
After graduating, Sallinen took a position as composition teacher at the Sibelius Academy and continued composing. Among his pupils were Jouni Kaipainen and the Austrian-born Finnish composer Herman Rechberger.
Sallinen was appointed as the general manager of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1960 and held the position until 1969. He was the chairman of the board of the Society of Finnish Composers between 1971 and 1974. Though he was a known teacher and was on many boards of directors, his compositions were not particularly noted until 1976, when he was made "Artist Professor" by the Finnish government, allowing him to concentrate on composing.
Sallinen's first opera, Ratsumies, known in English as The Horseman, premiered at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1975. His second opera, Punainen viiva (The Red Line), was commissioned by the Finnish National Opera. Sallinen's next opera, Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth to France), was a joint commission by Covent Garden and the Finnish National Opera.
After he received his lifelong "artist professorship", Sallinen devoted most of his time to composing. He has received a number of commissions and has composed eight symphonies, including one using material from a proposed ballet based on The Lord of the Rings and containing two mediaeval Finnish tunes from the Piae Cantiones. He has written seven operas and also composed the title track of the Kronos Quartet's album Winter Was Hard.
1960 – awarded diploma from the Sibelius Academy
1960–1970 – was administrator of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
1978 – awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize for The Horseman
1981 – became the first person to be made a professor of Arts for life by the Finnish Government, enabling him to concentrate on composing full-time
1983 – awarded the Wihuri Sibelius Prize
2004 – released the first in a series of recordings of complete orchestral music on the CPO label
The Horseman, Op. 32 (1974, Finnish: Ratsumies; Swedish: Ryttaren)
The King Goes Forth to France, Op. 53 (1983, Finnish: Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan)
The Palace, Op. 68 (1991–1993, Finnish: Palatsi)
Symphony No. 1, Op. 24 (1970–71)
Symphony No. 2, Symphonic Dialogue, for percussionist and orchestra, Op. 29 (1972)