So who is the guy behind the peculiar artist name Waehnen? 😉 Well, Waehnen is an acronym of my surname which is kind of hard to pronounce and spell for people not of Finnish origin. I started using the artist name simply because it is easier for me to see that name in public rather than my own personal name which I think belongs foremost to myself and those close to me.
Anyway, my name is Tero Väänänen and that´s the name my compositions are credited to and signed by. I was born in the late 70´s so I have gone through quite a few phases on my musical journey before eventually deciding to officially launch myself as a composer of art music.
My teachers in composition include Tapio Nevanlinna at the Sibelius Academy, Tuomo Teirilä over many years through private lessons and Harri Vuori at the Helsinki University — from which I also have a degree. I also sing, play the piano, bass guitar and double bass, some woodwinds (used to have a Bass Clarinet, now I have an Aerophone), some acoustic and electric guitar and some electric violin. I also record, mix and produce my own albums.
As a child I sang in a choir and played classical piano; as a teenager I sang and played the bass and keyboards in a grunge band; at high school I started to compose art rock; at Sibelius Academy I also started composing classical art music; during my university years I started to compose, play, record and publish progressive rock… I never stopped composing art music. Yet only once my progressive rock compositions and recordings became overtly ambitious did I finally admit to myself that it is only contemporary art music that truly allows me complete artistic freedom.
My first symphony is a testimony both to that complete artistic freedom and how I finally fully found myself as an artist at the age of 45. My thoughts on the symphony can be found on this blog post:
https://www.waehnen.fi/2025/07/27/path-of-a-composer-waehnen-symphony/
At this moment (2025-2026) I am composing a Quartet for Bass Clarinet (doubling Clarinet in Bb), Viola, Cello and Piano. Just as I poured the grand and symphonic aspects in me to my first symphony, I am now pouring my deep love for chamber music to this work. It is safe to say that even after the symphony I remain eclectic in my aesthetics: balancing between the modern, the tradition and the contemporary, and I still do aim at great contrasts while still taking care of the coherence and unity of the music. Although the symphony and the quartet are completely different works, I feel that in both a delicate balance has been found. A balance that stays true to myself and my hard-earned artistic freedom.
I hope you join my musical journey, check my compositions from along the way and in the future — and foremost I hope you will enjoy what you hear and read! For me music means genuine and meaningful communication from human beings to other human beings so in fact I think there is a decent possibility that something I have created might speak to you.
The good place to start is the Path of a Composer blog series where you will get a deeper view of my thinking and music.
https://www.waehnen.fi/category/path-of-a-composer-fi-en
Contact: waehnen (@) gmail.com