Jarkko Hartikainen is a composer striving to create works that explore what music is and could still be, researching the possibilities in sound through rigorous performer-collaboration as well as studying findings in a plethora of disciplines. Stimulating acoustic phenomena, exciting sonorities and concrete, bodily impulses through rhythm, resonance and empathy fuel his often extremely instrument-specific, concentrated writing. Jarkko Hartikainen's most well-known commissioned scores include Radix (Ensemble Schwerpunkt), Ice Concerto (violinist Sini Virtanen & McCormick Percussion Group), Studies on Empathy (Ensemble Adapter), Habitus (Tapiola Sinfonietta), and Alone (guitarist Otto Tolonen). In addition, Jarkko Hartikainen: Tardigrade (Hypsibius Dujardini) was part of guitarist Petri Kumela's award-winning project Small Creatures: A Musical Bestiary. Currently Hartikainen is working as a commission-based freelance composer, as artistic director of the Uusinta Ensemble (since 2023), and as a researcher pursuing his artistic Doctor of Music degree at the Sibelius Academy of Uniarts Helsinki. Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, defunensemble, Ensemble SurPlus, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ensemble Adapter, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Schwerpunkt, violinists Eriikka Maalismaa and Maria Puusaari, and other such distinguished performers have recently promoted his work.