Kimito Island Music Festival Artists 2019

Katinka Korkeala

Katinka Korkeala studied violin at the Sibelius Academy under Ari Angervo, Tuomas Haapanen and Igor Bezrodny. She has attended master classes of Yehudi Menuhin, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Ana Chumachenko. In 1999 she was awarded Master of Music degree at Sibelius Academy, and she gave a well-received recital in Helsinki. Korkeala has given numerous concerts, both as a chamber musician, and as a soloist; with orchestras like Tapiola Sinfonietta, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vox Artis Chamber Orchestra, and City Orchestras in Oulu, Jyväskylä, Pori, Mikkeli and Hämeenlinna. She has performed in Austria, Germany, France, Iceland, Italy, Russia and Switzerland.

Katinka Korkeala won the 1st prize for duos, together with her twin sister Sonja, in Concertino Praga Competition in 1984. She played 1st violin in Tapiola Sinfonietta from 1992 to 1994 and as the leader in Kouvola City orchestra in 1995. From 1999 to 2003 she taught violin at Tampere Conservatory, and after that taught at Stadia. Nowadays Korkeala acts as a freelance musician.

Katinka Korkeala founded the Kimito Island Music Festival in 1999 together with her husband, pianist Martti Rautio. They acted together as the artistic directors for 9 years. Since autumn 2007 she has continued in this position with her twin sister Sonja Korkeala.

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 »»

Tuuli Lindeberg

Soprano Tuuli Lindeberg is one of the leading performers of baroque and contemporary vocal music in Finland. She collaborates regularly with the best chamber orchestras and baroque music ensembles in her native country, appearing frequently as a soloist in oratorios, choral works and in concert recitals. She is a regular guest soloist of numerous Finnish music festivals and performs regularly on national radio and TV in concerts and other music programs. Tuuli Lindeberg collaborates regularly with young Finnish composers and has given several premieres of vocal works written for her voice.

Tuuli Lindeberg played the piano and studied music theory and choral conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki before concentrating on her singing career. During her studying years she sang in numerous semi-professional vocal ensembles. Ms.Lindeberg holds Master’s degree in solo voice from Sibelius Academy. She won the second prize in the national Kangasniemi singing competition in 2009. Besides her performing work, Tuuli teaches baroque music and voice at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn.

Petri Kumela

Petri Kumela, one of Finland’s most versatile and sought-after classical guitarists, is equally at home with period instruments as in working with contemporary composers. He is also one of the Finnish guitarists best known on the international scene, with a reputation for originality and versatility, whether he is giving a recital in Calcutta or a school concert in Japan, or motorising guitars in Mexico.

Petri Kumela studied at Helsinki Conservatory with Juan Antonio Muron and in master class by Franz Hálasz at Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg. Additionally, he has appeared in many masterclasses.

Winner of the first prize in the international Scandinavian Guitar Festival and Stafford Classical Guitar Recital competitions, Petri Kumela has appeared outside Finland in many European countries, South America, the United States, Russia, Japan, India and Bhutan,
At home in Finland, Petri Kumela has been heard at numerous festivals and in many concert series and he has been the soloist and chamber musician.

An artist with a special commitment to contemporary music, Petri Kumela has premiered countless works both in Finland and abroad and has had many works dedicated to him by f.ex. Paavo Korpijaakko, Uljas Pulkkis, Minna Leinonen, Paola Livorsi, Joachim F.W. Schneider, Riikka Talvitie, Lotta Wennäkoski and Pehr Henrik Nordgren. His partnership with Nordgren alone resulted in six new additions to the Finnish repertoire, from solo works to a concerto, for various instrumental combinations.

The nine recordings released so far by Petri Kumela have all won high critical acclaim. “Change is gonna come” (2010) was chosen by both the Helsingin Sanomat and the American Record Guide as critic ́s choices of the year and the disc “In Strange Company” (2013) was nominated for the album of the year by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) and for the recording industry ́s EMMA- prize. In 2016 He released “Fantasía Andaluza” together with the flamenco guitarist Joonas Widenius and in 2017 "Goldberg" with the german guitarist Jürgen Ruck. His latest recording is Solo Sor, played with a guitar made in 1826 by René Lacôte.

Kumela has also made a number of recordings for the Finnish Broadcasting Company and other radio and television networks.

Milana Chernyavska

Milana Chernyavska, a German artist with Ukrainian roots, has established herself as one of the leading pianists of our times, already looking back on an impressive career. Her critics agree with Alfred Brendel, who wrote that “Happiness was complete when one listened to Milana Chernyavska”.

At the age of seven, she played her first concert at the Philharmonic Hall in her native town of Kiev. In 1990, she graduated with distinction from the State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where Prof. Valeri Sahaidachny was her teacher. This was followed by master classes with renowned teachers and famous pianists, including Alfred Brendel, Dimitri Bashkirov, Vladimir Krainev, Sergio Perticaroli, Boris Bloch, Dario de Rosa and Alexander Lonquich. In 1994 Milana Chernyavska received the most important award of her homeland, “Merited Artist of the Ukraine”. From 1995 to 1998 she joined the master classes of Prof. Margareta Höhenrieder and Prof. Gerhard Oppitz at the Munich Music Academy.

Milana Chernyavska appears regularly at international festivals and major music centers around the world. For example, she has appeared at the Lucerne Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwetzingen Festival, and at halls like Vienna’s Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and St Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall. Her artistic achievements were honored with numerous national and international awards, including at competitions in Paris, Florence and in Kiev, where she took the gold medal at the International Piano Competition “Vladimir and Regina Horovitz”.

Apart from her solo career, Milana Chernyavska is a celebrated chamber musician. As a recital partner, she appears regularly with artists like Julia Fischer, Lisa Batiashvili, Arabella Steinbacher, Sebastian Klinger, Maximilian Hornung, Daniel Müller-Schott, Susanna Yoko Henkel, David Garrett, the Vogler Quartet and others. The Milander Quartet, which she founded, has quickly developed into a sought-after ensemble and unites “four excellent instrumental soloists who have found each other in perfect harmony” – as one critic wrote after the quartet’s Munich debut. As a soloist, Milana Chernyavska performs with many renowned orchestras, while audiences and critics cheer her solo recitals. In 2013, she performs at the Piano Festival Ruhr, among others.

Milana Chernyavska has recorded more than twenty CDs on well-known labels like EMI, Sony, Naxos, Claves, Divox, Genion, Avie Records and Ars Musici, many of which have won international awards.

The versatile artist was appointed professor of piano performance at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz in 2009. Her doctoral thesis in musicology dealt with the judgmental and pedagogical aspects of interpretation theory.

Diyang Mei

Diyang Mei was born in China in 1994 and began playing the violin at the age of five. From 2005 to 2014 he studied the viola with Shaowu Wang in the Central Conservatory of Music Beijing’s Middle School and has since participated in masterclasses given by well-known virtuosi such as Pinchas Zukerman, Nobuko Imai, Roberto Diaz, Paul Coletti, Thomas Riebl, Valentin Erben and Günther Pichler. Since October 2014, Diyang Mei has been studying viola performance under Hariolf Schlichtig at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

Among Diyang Mei’s most recent achievements are First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 ARD Music Competition for the Viola and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship the same year. These join a roster of previous competition first prizes, including Markneukirchen International Instrumental Viola Competition in 2017, Cultural Committee Gasteig Competition for Strings in Munich and International Max Rostal Viola Competition in Berlin – both in 2015 and the 19th Brahms International Viola Competition Austria.

As a soloist he has performed with many orchestras including Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonic Orchestra Bad Reichenhall, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, Chursächsiche Philharmonie Bad Elster and Busan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, among others.

As a chamber musician Diyang Mei has performed with the likes of Nicolas Chumachenco, Paul Coletti, Matthias Buchholz, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Wenn-Sinn Yang, Erika Geldsetzer, Martin Ostertag, Dag Jensen, Andrea Lieberknecht and Michael Schäfer.

Diyang Mei currently plays a Wolfgang Scharff viola generously donated by Ms Ingeborg Fahrenkamp-Schäffler.

Hanna Juutilainen

Hariolf Schlichtig

Violist Hariolf Schlichtig, born 1950 in Tuttlingen, is well known as chamber musician, soloist and teacher. He studied with Max Rostal and Sandor Vegh and has been member of the Cherubini Qartett for 19 years, which won several international competitions, appeared at famous venues all over the world, recorded several highly praised CDs and performed at internationally renowned festivals.

He appeared as soloist at the Cologne Philharmonie, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Conservatoire at Bruxelles, at the May Festival Wiesbaden, at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, and under Andras Schiff´s direction at Omaggio a Palladio in the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenca, Weimar, Basel and in 2006 in Zuerich and Carnegie Hall in New York.

In his longstanding relationship with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, he recorded the Viola concertos of K.Stamitz, F.A. Hoffmeister and D.F.Zelter for TUDOR. In March 2003 he played in the world premiere of the Viola Concerto of Herbert Callhoff under the direction of Christoph Poppen. He performs chamber music with collegues such as Tabea Zimmermann, Andras Schiff, Heinz Holliger, Alban Berg Quartett and Leonidas Kavakos, also as a guest of festivals like Edinburgh-Festival, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Whitsun-Concerts Ittingen and Festival of Arts Weimar.

Since 1987, Hariolf Schlichtig is Professor for Viola and Chamber Music at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. He is doing master classes internationally. Among his students are several price winners of important competitions and a lot of his former students are holding prominent positions in the international music scene.

With the Munich Chamber Orchestra he did a highly regarded recording of the concertos by K. Stamitz, F.A. Hoffmeister and C.F. Zelter. His CDs were honored with the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Echo Klassik, the Diapason d´Or and Choc de la Musique .

Hariolf Schlichtig is soloist and principal violist of the "Cappella Andrea Barca", the chamber orchestra of András Schiff, wich was founded in 1999 and conducted since then by him. This ensemble performs every year at "Mozartwoche" in Salzburg and in its "adopted home", Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, as well as in the major concert halls worldwide.

He is especially active as an advocate of contemporary music, works with composers like Rudi Spring, Joerg Widmann, Aribert Reimann, Friedrich Cerha, Siegfried Matthus, Gyoergy Kurtag, Heinz Holliger and Martin Christoph Redel and premiered some of their music. Since 2001, he has been developing his own music together with the sculptor and musician Paul Fuchs.

Senja Rummukainen

Senja Rummukainen (1994) was awarded the 1st prize in the Finnish National Cello Competition 2014 in Turku. In 2015 she was a finalist in the international Guilhermina Suggia Prize competition. Senja has performed at various music festivals such as the Naantali Music Festival, Turku Music Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Kauniainen Music Festival, Oulu Music Festival, Joensuu Music Festival, Grieg in Bergen Festival and RUSK Chamber Music Festival. She was the Young Artist of the Year at the Korsholm Music Festival in 2015 and since 2016 she has been part of the ”Young Chamber Musicians”-program at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. Rummukainen has played as a soloist with orchestras such as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Vaasa City Orchestra, Joensuu Orchestra, Pori Sinfonietta, Savonlinna Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen and Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic. She has made recordings for YLE.

Rummukainen is an active chamber musician and her chamber music partners has included Pekka Kuusisto, Jaakko Kuusisto, Elina Vähälä, Cecilia Zilliacus, Niek de Groot, Lise Berthaud, Jennifer Frautchi and Oliver Triendl, to name a few. Senjas string trio won the NMH chamber music competition in 2017. In the same year she became the 2nd principal cellist of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. She is one of the artistic directors of ”Chamber Summer”-Festival together with Johannes Piirto, Kasmir Uusitupa, Tami Pohjola and Riina Piirilä.

Senja Rummukainen started her master studies in 2017 at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Professor Jens-Peter Maintz. Before that she has studied at the East Helsinki Music Institute with Taru Aarnio, at the Sibelius Academy with Professor Marko Ylönen and at the Folkwang University der Künste with Professor Young-Chang Cho. 2016-2017 she was an exchange student in Truls Mørks class at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Senja has participated masterclasses with professors such as David Geringas, Reinhard Latzko and Wolfgang Boettcher.

Senja has been supported by The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Wihuri Foundation, Kordelin Foundation, Paulo Foundation, Lehtinen Foundation, Pro Musica Foundation and the Wegelius Foundation. Currently she plays a cello by Stefano Scarampella (1897), generously loaned to her by Jorma Panula.

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.

Peltonen is a new artistic director of Kaskinen Music Summer with Anna-Mari Peltonen.

As a chamber musician he has a highly successful international career. 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.

He has made radio recordings for Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. A Recording of Cheremissian Fantasy for cello and orchestra with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Ondine) was released in 2010.

Samuli recorded for Yarlung records company with his Sibelius Piano trio in 2016.

His next release will be for Bis Company with Kalevi Aho’s piece for cello and piano.

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

Petri Aarnio

Jukka Rautasalo

Ilkka Heinonen

Ilkka Heinonen combines the ancient sounds of the Finnish jouhikko (bowed lyre) with a diverse range of contemporary influences, pushing the instrument into exciting new musical territories.

Matias Häkkinen

Matias Häkkinen (b.1981) is one of the most active, dedicated and interesting musicians in his native Finland. He has a wide repertoire that ranges from renaissance to most recent contemporary music with a special interest in late 17th century music. He is a versatile musician who has given solo recitals, as well as worked as a conductor, lied-pianist, organist, chamber musician and accompanist with several singers, instrumentalists, and as a member of different ensembles and orchestras all around Europe. He is also working as a writer, lecturer and expert of early music matters and keyboard instruments as a freelancer in different organisations.

Häkkinen is the artistic director of the orchestra Ensemble Nylandia and Café Barock concert series and president of the Finnish Early Music Society. In 2009-10 he was a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra and in 2010 he toured with the European Union Chamber Orchestra. He has worked with the Finnish National Opera, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the Guard's Band, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Opus X and numerous other orchestras and ensembles. He also has worked as a teacher of the harpsichord, piano, basso continuo, chamber music and accompaniment in Helsinki Conservatory, Metropolia University and the Sibelius Academy. His activities include also different management and production engagements.

Matias Häkkinen graduated from Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with excellent grades having studied with professors Anssi Mattila and Annamari Pölhö. He has also studied at Amsterdam Conservatory with prof. Menno van Delft and in Escola Superior da Música e das Artes de Espectáculo, in Porto, Portugal with prof. Ana Mafalda Castro. He also holds a bachelor degree in the piano and has attended numerous masterclasses with some of the most prestigious professors in the early music world. His work has been supported by grants from several funds and foundations (Finnish state/Ministry of education), Pro Musica, Alfred Kordelin, MES).

As of 2018 his main focus are getting to really know the clavichord and preparing for concerts with contemporary and early music, improvisation and more than one keyboard instrument.

Anthony Marini

Louna Hosia