Kimito Island Music Festival Artists 2021

Emilia Hoving

Finnish conductor Emilia Hoving (born 1994) is currently Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under their Music Director Mikko Franck, and in 2019 held a similar post at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor Hannu Lintu. She first attracted widespread international attention in May 2019 when she took over concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony at very short notice, conducting BA Zimmermann’s “Dialogues” and Bruckner’s 2nd symphony with authority and musicality.

Samuli Peltonen

Cellist Samuli Peltonen’s powerful and charismatic ability of interpretation comes out strongest in romantic and contemporary repertoire.

Samuli Peltonen is the winner of many international competitions, and has played as a soloist with most Finnish symphony orchestras and with many orchestras abroad as well. He has worked together with world class conductors and composers like Krystof Penderecki, Sakari Oramo, Sofia Gubaidulina, Osmo Vänskä, Leif Segerstam, Aulis Sallinen and many others.

As a chamber musician he has a highly successful international career. Peltonen is a artistic director of Kaskinen Music Summer with Anna-Mari Peltonen.

Currently he plays Principal cello at the Finnish National Opera, and is frequently invited to play as guest principal at the Copenhagen Opera and Opera Australia.

Peltonen has made radio recordings for Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. He has recorded Cheremissian Fantasy for cello and orchestra with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for Ondine company, chamber music with his Sibelius Piano trio for Yarlung records company and Kalevi Aho’s works for cello and piano for Bis Company.

Samuli Peltonen plays valuable Giovanni Grancino cello. The purchase was made possible by Mandatum Life and its investment product targeted at professional investors.

Samuli Peltonen's websites »»

Hedvig Paulig

Finnish soprano, Hedvig Paulig, graduated with a Dip.RAM from the Royal Academy of Music in London and a M. Mus. from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. She is the recipient of many scholarships and awards, which include First Prize in the International Sibelius Singing Competition in Finland in 2011.

Hedvig has performed at the regional opera houses in Finland starring as Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow) and Violetta (La Traviata), many Mozart parts; Pamina, Fiordiligi, The Countess, First Lady, Donna Elvira. She has sung at many festivals in Scandinavia, Switzerland, England, Israel, Australia and Singapore. Her extensive repertoire has led to engagements with many prominent Finnish Orchestras, including the Helsinki Philharmonic, Lapland Chamber Orchestra and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. She made her debut at the Finnish National Opera in 2013 as Frasquita (Carmen) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola).

Hedvig has a wide repertoire of Nordic, English, French, German and American songs as well as oratorios by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Mendelssohn. She has recorded Finnish Art songs by Sibelius, Melartin, Kilpinen, Pylkkänen and Wegelius for the labels Fuga, Toccata Classics and the Sibelius One Society.

Folke Gräsbeck

The Finnish pianist Folke Gräsbeck was awarded I Prize in the nationwide Maj Lind Competition in Finland, as 17-year-old. He first studied at the Conservatory of Turku (home city), then proceeded to study with Maria Curcio-Diamand in London.

At the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), he worked as a permanent Chamber Pianist during 1985–2017, achieved Master’s exam in 1997 and he held his Doctoral disputation in 2008. Folke Gräsbeck has performed more than 400 of Sibelius’s c. 600 compositions, and he plays more than 24 CDs included in the international CD series SIBELIUS EDITION, released by BIS Records. He has performed more than thirty different piano concertos as a soloist with orchestra. He has given performances as a recitalist, chamber player and Lied accompanist in many European countries, Mexico, USA, UAE, Japan, Egypt, Lebanon, China, Botswana and Zimbabwe, etc.. Folke Gräsbeck received the Cross of Merit of the Lion’s Order, awarded by the Finnish President Tarja Halonen in 2009, The Sibelius Medal 2014.

Hedvig Paulig and Folke Gräsbeck have given many concerts together, in UK, Norway and Israel (the Tel Aviv Sibelius Concert was included in the Felicja Blumenthal festival, and the concert at the Big Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre was directly broadcast). Their Sibelius CD ‘Nordic Love’ was released by the British SibeliusOne Society in 2017. Festival appearances in Finland at the Aino Ackté Festival, the Sibelius in Korpo Festival, Grankulla Musikfest, Lahti International Sibelius Weeks, etc. As the 150th Anniversary of the composer Armas Järnefelt was celebrated in 2019, Hedvig Paulig, violinist Jaso Sasaki and Folke Gräsbeck were responsible for the main festive event of the year, a Järnefelt concert in Helsinki at the House of Nobility.

Alma Pöysti

Eero Hämeenniemi

Eero Hämeenniemi is a Finnish composer, pianist and writer. He has had the position of Artist Professor (2012–2016) and continues to work as a Docent at the Sibelius-Academy (of the University of the Art). 

Hämeenniemi has composed music in all of the major genres of European Classical music. He also works as a pianist performing with some of the leading personalities in the field of free improvisation. He also has a long standing working relationship with many well-known Indian musicians. 

Remarkabel collaborators have been Hamburg Ensemble Resonanz, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and the Finninsh Radio Orchestra. In the next season Hämeenniemi’s music will be played by South Netherlands Philharmonic and Helsinki Baroque Orchestra. 

Hämeenniemi is primarily a composer of orchestral and chamber music in a freely chromatic, lyrical style. In the 1990s he began to adopt elements from outside Western art music, and they became an organic part of his musical language. The blending of European and South Indian traditions increased in the 1990s and reached its peak in Lintu ja tuuli (‘The Bird and the Wind’, 1994) for soprano, strings, and Indian classical dancers. Hämeeniemi has also composed symphonies, a Violin Concerto (1991), works for soloist and orchestra (such as Efisaes for piano and 12 solo strings and Dialogue for piano and orchestra) as well as jazz works for big band. His choral piece Nattuvanar won the Unesco Rostrum in 1994.

Sonja Korkeala

Sonja Korkeala was born in Finland. She is a violinist, professor for violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, Primaria of the Rodin-Quartett. Since 2007 Sonja Korkeala is artistic director of the Kimito Island Music Festival, in cooperation with her twin sister Katinka Korkeala, who founded the festival in 1999.

She studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Ari Angervo and Prof. Tuomas Haapanen and at the Liszt Academy in Budapest with Maria Vermes. Sonja Korkeala continued her studies with professor Ana Chumachenco at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, where she finished her studies with the masterclass degree. She won several prizes, among others at Concertino Praga 1984, 1985 in Kuopio (Finland), 1988 in Gorizia (Italy) and 1991 at the "Konzertgesellschaft" in Munich.

Since 1993 Sonja Korkeala is first violinist of the Rodin string quartet, which has its own concert series in the Max-Joseph-Saal at the Munich Residenz since 1997. The Rodin-Quartett recorded many CDs with the Amati Records.

Sonja Korkeala has performed at numerous festivals, e.g. Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Amiata Piano Festival and she has collaborated with musicians among others András Adorján, Adrian Brendel, Eduard Brunner, Ana Chumachenco, Christoph Hartmann, Helena Juntunen, Sharon Kam, Radu Lupu, Siegfried Palm, Alfredo Perl, Christoph Richter, Hariolf Schlichtig, Ingolf Turban, Jörg Widmann, Marko Ylönen and Wen Xiao Zheng.

In 1994 she became assistant teacher of Prof. Ana Chumchenco at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich", then since 2000 she has taught her own class at the same institute. Since 2011 she is professor at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich". She made a name for herself as teacher of highly giftet young violinists. Her pupils included Julia Fischer, Arabella Steinbacher, Lena Neudauer, Mariella Haubs, Daniel Röhn, Veronika Eberle and many others.

Sonja Korkeala's websites »»

Jyrki Linjama

Jyrki Linjama (born 23 April 1962) studied composition at the Sibelius Academy with Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen obtaining an artistic doctorate in 2003. He also studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, where his teacher was Witold Szalonek, and took private lessons in Budapest with Zsolt Durkó. Jyrki Linjama has taught at the Helsinki Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy, and lectured in musicology at the University of Turku in 1993-2008. He has also written about music and been active in several organizations, e.g. as Chairman of the association for Finnish composers of church music and on the board of the Madetoja Foundation, for example. He has also taught in educational projects, such as workshops in schools.

His opus list has grown as a result of commissions and consists equally of sacred and more profane music. Having recently resigned from his position at the University of Turku, Linjama is now a freelance composer. Church music has gradually become more and more dominant in his work. Linjama has composed a wealth of chamber, vocal and instrumental works including several pieces for organ. His large-scale works include three concertos for violin, his main instrument, the Liturgical Concerto for Organ and Strings (2005) and pas de deux commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1994. He has also composed Suomalainen Stabat Mater (Finnish Stabat Mater, 2012) and Vanitas for mixed chorus and orchestra (2013). Linjama's operas include the church opera Das Geburt des Täufers which was premiered in Austria in 2010 when Linjama was the Composer-in-Residence at the Carinthischer Sommer music festival. His most recent opera is Kolme kirjettä Laestadiukselle (Three Letters to Laestadius) premiered in 2017.

When describing his music Linjama mentions its general sensitivity and obvious mimosa-like quality. He feels it is important to defend the right to intimacy, to richness of nuance and protection amid today’s increasingly widespread obscenity. On the other hand, he points out that the core of musical culture is a fruitful tension between counterforces: sensitivity and aggressiveness.

Jyrki Linjama on Music Finland's website >>

Jyrki Linjama on Fennica Gehrman's website >>

Petteri Pitko

As a soloist and chamber musician, Petteri Pitko is a busy international performer as well as playing with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra and the Berlin-based Sheridan Ensemble. He is the artistic director of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (www.fibo.fi), and he works as a lecturer for harpsichord and chamber music at the NOVIA University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

As a soloist, Petteri Pitko has performed with renowned orchestras, such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. He has played at several European music festivals (Chamber Music Series of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Musica Festival Strasbourg, Festival de musique de Besançon, Ultraschall Festival Berlin, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Time of Music Viitasaari, among others), in China, Korea (Tongyeong International Music Festival) and the Canary Islands, and he has worked as orchestral musician and continuo player for numerous ensembles, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Ensemble Resonanz, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

His diverse repertoire extends from the early baroque to the 21st-century music. One of his main interests is in New Music for harpsichord and he has given several world premieres of chamber and solo works by composers such as Misato Mochizuki, Sarah Nemtsov, Perttu Haapanen, Sebastian Fagerlund, and Jyrki Linjama.

Petteri Pitko studied harpsichord at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, with Huguette Dreyfus in Paris and with Mitzi Meyerson at the University of Arts in Berlin, from which he graduated with Honours.

Petteri Pitko's home page >>

Päivi Severeide

Päivi Severeide has worked as principal harpist at the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra since 2014 and works as coordinating teacher for harp at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts. Severeide holds also the position of principal harpist at the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. In 2005 Severeide performed as a young soloist at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and has later performed with other Finnish orchestras as well. 

Severeide received her Master of Music from the Sibelius Academy in 2008, and completed her harp diploma the year before with the guidance of Reija Bister and Arielle Valibouse. She also studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg in the harp class of Sarah O’Brien. Päivi Severeide had her debut in 2009.

Erica Nygård

Jyväskylä Sinfonia

Jyväskylä Sinfonia organizes each year over 100 music events ranging from classical symphony concerts to chamber music concerts, open-minded entertaining evenings, and audience development events. Orchestra’s chief conductor Ville Matvejeff began his period in the beginning of 2014 and will continue until the year 2022. Since the beginning of the 21th century, Jyväskylä Sinfonia has filled its concert halls year after year and the seats are almost 100 % sold. 

The orchestra visits regularly in festivals and another events; Kangasniemi Music Weeks, Turku Music Festival, Naantali Music Festival among others. Jyväskylä Sinfonia has published nearly 40 recordings and has released music for some of the largest classical music publishing companies. 

Jyväskylä Sinfonia Home page >>

The Ensemble of Finnish Baroque Orchestra

Founded in 1989, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra has consolidated its position within the Finnish orchestral scene. Since its inception, FiBO has collaborated with some of the foremost soloists and concertmasters of the age and performed a wide-ranging repertoire. The focus is generally on Baroque music, but the orchestra often explores works from other periods too, from early Baroque to early Romanticism. FiBO also plays contemporary music composed for period instruments, and has even commissioned several works itself. The musicians of the core ensemble often perform as chamber musicians. In its largest manifestations the orchestra can be heard playing symphony-orchestra repertoire and in opera performances.

FiBO regularly performs as orchestra in residence at the festive House of Nobility in Helsinki and tours widely across Finland. The orchestra also frequently performs at major Finnish festivals including the Helsinki Festival, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, and the Turku Music Festival. Abroad FiBO has given performances at concert halls across Germany, Austria, Spain, East Europe and the Nordic countries.

Throughout its history, FiBO has been a forerunner in the Finnish music scene. Beginning life as the Sixth Floor Orchestra, it has played an important role in the emergence of the early-music movement in Northern Europe. As the orchestra has developed, FiBO’s exciting performances, creative programming and innovative projects, have caught the attention of concert organisers both in Finland and abroad. From widening economic support at home to growing popularity abroad, and with awards including Finnish Musical Act of the Year and Disc of the Year (Yle), FiBO continues to forge a unique path as a Baroque orchestra for the 21st century.

Moramoramor, the first album by FiBO Records, was released in November 2017 and has received a warm welcome. It contains the third and fifth Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, concertos by Vivaldi with the orchestra’s own soloists, and Jukka Tiensuu’s Mora, the first Finnish piece composed for a large Baroque orchestra. The second album by FiBO Records, Helsinki Window contains contemporary music for baroque instruments. It is possible to buy these albums from FiBO’s online store.

"One could not ask for a finer, more resilient support for the soloists than the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, guests for the first time at the Nuremberg International Organ Week."

Süddeutsche Zeitung / Stephan Schwarz-Peters, June 10, 2018, from the performance of Händel's Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno

The Finnish Baroque Orchestra's home page >>

Zagros Quartet

Chamber ensemble Zagros is group of broad-minded Finnish musicians concentrating on contemporary music. Zagros is also one of the leading permanent chamber music ensembles in Finland. Key words of this former Sibelius-Academy´s student orchestra have always been liberal-thinking, idealism and the desire to experiment.

The ensemble changes its format from one concert to another; depending on the repertoire to be performed its size varies and Petri Komulainen has been the artistic director since 2013. Two essential themes in the repertoire planning are the modern classics of the 20th century and the very latest in contemporary music. The members of Zagros find the performing and promotion of the contemporary music a very important part of their artistic policy. Close co-operation and contacts with young composers identifies them. For the 2005 concert series ”Zagros in Balder - Chamber music in the heart of the city” Zagros has commissioned four new works from four Finnish composers.

Zagros has been in close association with conductors Hannu Lintu and John Storgårds. In 2003 Susanna Mälkki designed for the ensemble a concert series ”Soiva Pää”, composers from Europe.

Zagros Quartet's home page >>