Otto Nuoranne (b. 1991) is a Helsinki-based multi-disciplinary composer, music maker, and cellist.
As composer
With influences ranging from contemporary classical music to progressive metal via renaissance counterpoint and IDM, Nuoranne's music always strives to bring together the intricacy and complexity from the acoustic and classical side, and the rhythmic drive and intensity from the amplified and electronic side.
Nuoranne is currently working on new music for a variety of projects, most currentlly an ensemble piece for Korvat auki ry and the Musica Nova Festival in 2025. He is composing the piece at the AADK Cruce residency in Blanca, Spain with the generous support of the Finnish Culture Foundation. He has previously composed instrumental music for ensembles/projects like the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab, Avanti!, Zagros Ensemble, HISS Quartet, Hai Quartet, EMO Ensemble, as well as vocal music and solo repertoire for various instruments. His piece "Roso" was chosen to represent Finland at the Ung Nordisk Musik Festival in Örebro, Sweden, in 2024.
Nuoranne is a member of the Finnish Composers Association, and currently studying in the MMus Composition programme at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. He is slated to attend McGill University in Montreal, QC, Canada, as a visiting graduate student in the spring term in 2025. He has previously been taught by Ville Raasakka, Juhani Nuorvala, and Matthew Whittall, and has recently taken part in composition masterclasses with Jukka Tiensuu, Tomi Räisänen, Julian Anderson, and Carola Bauckholt. He has an interest in composing music for inter-disciplinary projects like film, theatre, and dance.
As music maker
Nuoranne’s solo project Echoic has been running since 2013, and one of the projects under his 2022 Taike grant was the writing of Echoic’s third studio album, slated for release sometime in 2025-26. In Echoic, Nuoranne is the sole writer, permanent performer, and artistic producer, but the albums have been engineered by audio wizards Markus Vuoristo, Ilari Heinilä, and Ilmari Apajalahti in the past. On stage, Nuoranne is joined by a rotating collection of musicians.
As cellist
Nuoranne is a classically trained cellist and regularly works as a cellist in both art music and other areas. He is a member of improvised music collective Bureaux, and string quartets Neue Quartet and Ursus Factory Strings. Nuoranne has been taught cello by Tapani Heikinheimo, Raimo Sariola, and Heikki Kulo, and improvisation by Anssi Karttunen and Libero Mureddu.
Other
Nuoranne graduated as a Bachelor in Music Theory in the spring of 2022 and occasionally works with arrangements and other music work on a freelance basis. Before his academic music career, Nuoranne completed a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics at University College London in the United Kingdom, and besides the music, he also works as an English-to-Finnish translator and proofreader. The little spare time that's left he spends with films, ice swimming and whisky.