Kimito Island Music Festival Artists 2020

Tomas Djupsjöbacka

The roots of Tomas Djupsjöbacka’s musicianship lie in chamber music. He is a founding member and cellist of the string quartet Meta4, which regularly performs in key music capitals and concert halls around the world. Tomas is also member of the distinguished Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In the last few years Tomas has developed a keen interest in conducting. He studied at the conducting class of the Sibelius Academy, graduating in 2017 and has attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula as well. Tomas receives regular private coaching from New York Metropolitan Opera Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Djupsjöbacka has appeared as a conductor with most of the orchestras in Finland; he made his subscription debut with the Finnish Radio Orchestra in 2016 with an all-Mozart program. In the upcoming season 2019-20 Djupsjöbacka will be returning to work with Sinfonia Lahti, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Lohja Orchestra as well as making his subscription debut with the Turku Philharmonic. Tomas Djupsjöbacka was announced Principal Guest Conductor of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra starting in autumn 2019. He is also conductor of the Helsinki University Orchestra (YS) since 2017.

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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.

Norbert Kaiser

Norbert Kaiser, born 1961 in Frankfurt, had clarinet, violin and piano lessons. In 1979, he was a prize winner in the national young musician competition. From 1980 to 1985 he studied clarinet in the Musikhochschule Detmold with Jost Michaels and Hans Klaus and piano with Werner Genuit and worked as an assistant from 1985 to 1986. After his final exam in 1984, he played as clarinettist of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (1984-1989) in many CD productions.

Norbert Kaiser made concert tours in Japan and South-America and, under the conductor Eliahu Inbal received the German Recording prize. Radio recordings as a soloist with the Hessische Rundfunk and Suedwestfunk (Baden-Baden), as well as appearances with the Frankfurt Soloists and the Quartet of the Hessischer Rundfunk were following. From 1989 to 2000, Norbert Kaiser was principal clarinet of the Stuttgart Opera Orchestra.
He worked internationally with renowned conductors like Sir Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Eliahu Inbal, Herbert Blomstedt, Fabio Luisi and Fruebeck de Burgos. In 1989 he founded the “ Stuttgart Octett”.

He played solo concerts with the Stuttgart Opera Orchestra, the Ludwigsburg festival Orchestra and the Heilbronn Chamber Orchestra.
As a teacher he gave master classes in the royal conservatory in Madrid, in the Oberstdorf music summer, “jeunesse musicale” in Weickersheim and in the Musikhochschule in Trossingen, Mannheim,Munich, Shenyang, Shanghai and Seoul ( South-Korea) 2004 he was appointed guest professor for clarinet at the conservatory in Shenyang ( China ). He was renowned master classes for chamber music in Frenzwegen and at the International Bach Academy. In 1999 he was appointed professor for clarinet at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart.

After studying conducting in Weimar, he worked together with different professional and youth orchestras and from 1999 to 2001 he was principal conductor of the Thueringen youth orchestra. In 1996 he won a price at the international competition for conducting in Budapest. He also worked as a guest-conductor with Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Jenaer Philharmoniker, Orchestra of Gotha, Staatskapelle Weimar, Pecs Symphony Orchestra ( Hungary ) and Vratsa Symphonie Orchestra ( Bulgaria). 1997/98 he was assistant conductor in the opera Stuttgart and opera Ulm ( production “ Figaro “ W.A. Mozart ).

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 >>

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.

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 >>

Lilya Tymchyshyn

Lilya Tymchyshyn was born in Bolton, England in 1993. Growing up watching her mother perform opera, she was inspired to take up music on the piano, then later on the viola.

Lilya’s first competition success was winning 2nd prize at the Kenneth Page Foundation Viola Competition, despite being 15 and the youngest participant in the competition. A laureate of the 2014 Johannes Brahms Competition, her most recent achievement is winning 1st prize at Beethoven’s Hradec International Music Competition in 2015. Her success has led her to play solo recitals in countries including Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, England, Switzerland and Italy.

An extremely enthusiastic chamber musician, Lilya has performed in many festivals including North-Norfolk Music Festival, Aurora Chamber Music and Verbier Festival, as well as chamber masterclasses with well-known teachers such as Christoph Richter, members of the Arditti String Quartet, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Pamela Frank and Lawrence Lesser. Solo masterclasses have included Lars Anders Tomter, Thomas Riebl, Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Jean Sulem and Tabea Zimmermann.

She currently studies with Prof Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music & Arts Munich, whilst furthering her studies in Paris with David Gaillard and Jean Sulem.

Lilya plays on a viola by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume on loan to her from Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Lilya Tymchyshyn's home page

Guido Schiefen

After a promising debut as a violin player Guido Schiefen very soon fell in love with the cello. As a result of good progress he became first prize winner of several youth competitions (1st prize Bundeswettbewerb “Jugend musiziert“ 1980) and at the age of twelve he joined the Musikhochschule Köln as a “young student“ of his teacher Prof. Alwin Bauer. Besides that he was inspired by additional lessons with Maurice Gendron and Siegfried Palm.

Already at young age he was performing on stage as a soloist and chamber musician. After finishing school (Abitur 1987) he continued his fulltime studies in Cologne. During that time he was engaged for the first time to several radio and television productions as well as CD recordings.

As winner of the Köln Hochschulwettbewerb he received a scholarship by the German “Studienstiftung“. In 1990 (at the age of 22) he became a prizewinner in Moscow at the 9th Int. Tschaikowsky competition. Soon after that he was awarded the young artists promotion prize of the country Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine Westphalia). He was invited to perform in International music festivals like Bachwoche Ansbach, Davos, Rheingau Musikfestival, Echternach / Luxemburg ,Saga / Japan etc.

Ever since he has been performing worldwide in renowned concert halls with orchestras like WDR Köln, Bamberger Symphoniker, Festival Strings Lucerne, Berliner Symphoniker, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London among others. In Duo Recitals and other chamber music formations he performed with pianists like Günter Ludwig, Pavel Gilov, Olaf Dressler and Alfredo Perl Additionally he was a member of the “Ensemble Incanto“ playing in concerts worldwide.

Guido Schiefen's repertoire obtains the essential standard masterpieces of the cello repertoire as well as more unknown works of less famous composers from different epoques. Some of these pieces have been published for Tonger (Köln), Schott (Mainz), Peters (Leipzig) among others. Quite a big part of it has been recorded on more than 30 CDs during the last three decades for companies like Arte Nova, Oehms Classics, cpo, Darbringhaus & Grimm. Most of these recordings have been reviewed enthusiastically and thus have established Guido Schiefen's reputation as one of his generation's leading cellists.

Recently Guido Schiefen appeared on the CD market with two new recordings: the complete works for cello and piano by Max Reger (with pianist Jacob Leuschner, for Oehms Classics) and “Schumannia“ (the standard pieces for cello and piano plus song transcriptions) with pianist Markus Kreul (for Dabringhaus & Grimm). As a result of “Schumannia“ Markus Kreul and Guido Schiefen were rewarded as “Schumann ambassadors“ and became members of the board of artists of the Schumann Forum Bonn in 2017.

Guido Schiefen is a very passionate cello teacher as well. Since many years he has been teaching masterclasses in Germany, the United States, Hungary and other countries on a regular basis. In September 2008 he was appointed as cello teacher at the Hochschule Luzern - Musik. In 2009 he was awarded the title “Professor“ . Since 2000 Guido Schiefen is artistic director of the “Klassik-Bühne Rhein-Sieg“.

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.

Maya Wichert

The 14-year-old Maya Wichert from Munich has already won first prizes at the Carl Bechstein Competition in Berlin in a duo with piano (2015), at the International Anton Rubinstein Competition in Düsseldorf (2016) and in the same year at the International Competition Il piccolo violino magico in San Vito al Tagliamento in Italy and also first prize at the 9th International Louis Spohr Competition in Weimar (2019). As a soloist she has performed with various orchestras in Germany, Italy and Slovenia, most recently with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Ulm in 2019. As a 4-year-old she started playing the violin, at the age of 9 Maya Wichert was accepted as a junior student at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and has been studying with Prof. Sonja Korkeala ever since. Master classes have also led her to Ingolf Turban, Ana Chumachenco and Julia Fischer, among others.

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 >>