Jonne Valtonen

Life and early career

Jonne Valtonen was born on March 23, 1976 in Turku, Finland and was raised in Kaarina along with his brother. He began learning to play classical piano at the age of nine.

Valtonen's first music compositions were done on his home computer, a Commodore 64. During his teen years, he became involved in the PC demoscene where he was able to pursue his passion for electronic music production. He has won several awards in this field: Between 1991 and 1996 Valtonen created music for one of the most widely popular groups in the demoscene at the time, the Future Crew. Eventually he became their lead composer under the pseudonym Purple Motion. Some of his best-known compositions were "UnreaL ][ (Second Reality)", "Satellite One", and "Starshine".

Educational background

Jonne Valtonen graduated from classical composition at the Pirkanmaa Polytechnic in Finland in 2009. He has received training in composition under the guidance of Hannu Pohjannoro, Oliver Kohlenberg, and Juhani Nuorvala. He has also studied under Magnus Lindberg, Jukka Tiensuu, Kirmo Lintinen and Michael Nyman in various composition masterclasses.

Working for the entertainment industry

In 1996 Jonne Valtonen began doing commission work for major game developers in Finland, namely Remedy Entertainment, Housemarque and Bugbear Entertainment. During the same time, he served as the musical director for the TeatteriSusi theatre, where he composed music for several plays including Dracula, The Miser and Don Quijote.

In 1998, Jonne Valtonen co-founded his company Valtone Oy, specialising in music productions for the entertainment industry. Continuing on this path, he also contributed two titles, in 2000 and 2002, for the Merregnon trilogy, an international soundtrack project featuring orchestral music by veteran video game composers from all over the world, such as Chris Hülsbeck and Yuzo Koshiro. In 2002, Valtonen's talent was recognized again when he was presented with the Best Soundtrack Award at the International Fest of Cinema & Technology for the movie House by the Sea, directed by Janne Ketola. In 2004 Jonne Valtonen released his first professionally mastered audio CD, titled Musicdisk featuring tracks from his demoscene past.

At the beginning of 2008, Jonne Valtonen took the position of the music lead for all live orchestra projects at Merregnon Studios, a company managed by Thomas Böcker and involved in productions of video game music concerts around the world, and several live recordings for publishers/developers such as THQ US, SEGA Japan and Square Enix Japan.

Orchestra arrangements

Drawing on his strong background in live orchestra work and his studies, Jonne Valtonen has been arranging and orchestrating music for video game concerts since 2005. He has earned worldwide recognition as the main arranger of the annual video game music concerts of the German WDR Radio Orchestra, namely Symphonic Shades (2008), Symphonic Fantasies (2009), Symphonic Legends (2010) and Symphonic Odysseys (2011).

In addition to the WDR Radio Orchestra, his arrangements have been performed by orchestras and choirs around the world, as well as at concert halls including Sydney Opera House, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Max Fisher Music Center Detroit, Esplanade Singapore, Cologne Philharmonic Hall and Konserthuset Stockholm. His portfolio includes major franchises such as Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Galaxy, The Elder Scrolls, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, The Legend of Zelda and Castlevania. In 2007 he arranged and orchestrated music for Sega's arcade game series World Club Champion Football which was recorded with a live orchestra and choir in Prague.

Trivia

Jonne Valtonen chose his demoscene pseudonym Purple Motion as a tribute to the British rock group Deep Purple.

Valtonen has become very interested in the human voice. He sings in a mixed choir (Näsin Ääni, Tampere). He also started learning to play the harp.

Game music arrangements (excerpt)

Contemporary works (excerpt)

Theater music (excerpt)

Game soundtracks (excerpt)

Discography

Awards