Kimito Island Music Festival Artists 2023

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 »»

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. She has continued in this position with her twin sister Sonja Korkeala from 2007 to 2019 and during 2023.

Helena Juntunen

Kaapo Ijas

Alfredo Perl

Alfredo Perl has established himself as one of today’s leading pianists. Chilean by birth, he studied with Carlos Botto in Santiago, Günter Ludwig in Cologne and Maria Curcio in London. Since his first public performance at the age of nine, he has given numerous concerts throughout the world and has been a prize-winner at major competitions.

Perl performed a complete Beethoven Sonatas cycle at London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as in Santiago and Moscow, to huge public critical acclaim. The completion of the Wigmore Hall series coincided with the release of his Beethoven Sonata cycle with the Diabelli Variations. Perl has been said to play Beethoven "with sparkling freshness, extraordinary tenderness and unaffected brilliance. He demonstrates that, even in these prosaic times, the great tradition of Beethoven playing lives on." (Joachim Kaiser, Süddeutsche Zeitung). He has also recorded works for solo piano and for piano and orchestra by Franz Liszt, Schubert sonatas and the complete works of Ravel. The BBC label Opus Arte issued a DVD of his recording of Chopin Preludes op. 28.

Alfredo Perl made his debut in the International Piano Series at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1992 (a series to which he returned to several times), which was closely followed by his first recital at the Wigmore Hall. Perl has performed worldwide at major venues such as the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, London’s Barbican Centre, Rudolfinum Prague, Munich’s Herkulessaal, the Cologne Philharmonie, Izumi Hall Osaka, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Sydney Town Hall and Opera House and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. He has also visited the Schwetzingen, Schleswig Holstein Musik, Rheingau, Bad Kissingen, and Bonn Beethovenfest festivals; the Bath International Music Festival; Harrogate Festival; Beirut Al Bustan Festival and the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt.

A remarkably versatile performer, Perl has performed with orchestras such as the London Symphony, BBC Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the Hallé, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony. He has also appeared with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Wiener Symphoniker, Netherlands Philharmonic and Tokyo Symphony orchestras.
Alfredo Perl has recently taken up the baton and will be conducting several concerts with the Detmolder Kammerorchester, with whom he holds the position of Music Director.

Alfredo Perl is Professor at Detmold Music University. He has acted as jury member of the Bonn Beethoven Competition, the Scottish International Piano Competition and Busoni International Piano competition.

Anna-Liisa Bezrodny

Roland Glassl

Hailed by The Strad magazine as the "new century's new talent, (one of) the stars of the next decade,” German violist Roland Glassl was launched into an international career as prizewinner of many prestigious national and international competitions.

Glassl was the first German to win the first prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in England, where he was also awarded the Peter Schidlof Prize for the finalist with the most beautiful tone. Other awards include first prize at the II. Viola Competition of the German Viola Society, top prize at the 1st International Viola Competition Vienna, second prize at the Primrose Viola Competition, and first prize at the Washington International Competition for strings.

Concert tours have taken him through Europe, North- and South America, and China. Glassl has appeared at Wigmore Hall in London, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Peking, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago/ USA, Chamber Music International (CMI) in Dallas/ USA, the Caramoor Festival in New York, Musica Riva in Riva del Garda/ Italy, and Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove/England.

As a soloist, Glassl has performed with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Howard Griffiths, Sebastian Tewinkel, Hans Richter, Markus Poschnern and Alfred Eschwé and orchestras such as the Staatsorchester Mainz, the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, the China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the German Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate, the Pécs Symphony Orchestra, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, Glassl has collaborated with leading artists, including Julia Fischer, Michael Sanderling, Lisa Batiashvili, Miriam Fried, Pekka Kuusisto, Sharon Kam, Atar Arad, Leon Fleischer, Michael Tree, and Hariolf Schlichtig.

From 1999 to 2015 Roland Glassl was the violist of the Mandelring Quartet, recognised as one of the foremost quartets in the world with frequent engagements in virtually every major chamber music hall. The quartet’s numerous recordings, which span much of their wide-ranging repertoire, have garnered the German Music Critics’ Prize as well as multiple nominations for the International Classical Music Award.

Teaching has always been an important addition to his concert life for Roland Glassl. From 2004 to 2018, he succeeded Tabea Zimmermann as Professor for Viola at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. In 2018 he took over the position of Prof. Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, returning to his roots.

Roland Glassl was born in Germany, into a luthier's family with a tradition of many generations of violin making. He currently performs on a viola made by his father, who was also his first violin teacher. Later, he continued his studies at the “Musikhochschule München” with Ana Chumachenco. After receiving his artist diploma with distinction, he came to the United States to study violin with Paul Biss and viola with Atar Arad at Indiana University. Fascinated by the deep, warm sound of the viola, he decided to devote himself to the instrument and its music.

Roland Glassl´s websites

Jan-Erik Gustafsson

Aapo Järvinen

Nahoko Kinoshita

Gil Agababa Shaked

Jussi Järvenpää

Emil Fuchs

Kajsa Dahlbäck

Kajsa Dahlbäck's websites »»

Jukka Rautasalo

Heidi Peltoniemi

Anna Rinta-Rahko

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 artistic advisor is conductor Ville Matvejeff and principal guest string quartet Meta4. 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's webb sites >>