Kaija Saariaho was a Finnish composer based in Paris. In a 2019 composers' poll by BBC Music Magazine, Saariaho was ranked the greatest living composer. This poetic composer, who died in June 2023, wrote indelible, simmering operas, concertos, orchestral explosions, choral meditations and solos. In 2016, the Metropolitan Opera gave its first performance of her 1999 opera,
L'Amour de loin, only the second opera by a female composer ever to be presented by the company. Dr David Schwartz presented "An Homage to the Late Kaija Saariaho" on Monday 28 August where we examined her electrifying opera
L'Amour de loi.
