Kimito Island Music Festival Artists 2026

Roland Glassl

Roland Glassl has made a name for himself as a soloist and chamber musician that extends far beyond national borders. Numerous prizes at international competitions (including first prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition) and his 16 years as a member of the Mandelring Quartet (1999–2015) have taken him to many major stages and international festivals around the world.

As a soloist, he has worked with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Hermann Bäumer, Howard Griffiths, Hans Richter, Markus Poschner, Alfred Eschwé, and Theodor Guschlbauer, and has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich, the Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra, the China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, the German State Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate, the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra of Pécs, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. For many years, Roland Glassl has also been active as a solo violist in various leading orchestras.

Born in Ingolstadt, the musician first studied violin at the Munich University of Music and Theatre with Prof. Ana Chumachenco, before being fascinated by the sound of the viola and switching to viola with Prof. Atar Arad at Indiana University in Bloomington, USA.

Roland Glassl has held the professorship for viola at the University of Music and Theatre Munich since 2018.

Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä

Kreeta‑Julia Heikkilä is a versatile, energetic and dynamic violinist who is highly sought after internationally as a concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician.

In addition to Finland, Heikkilä has performed as a chamber musician and soloist at several international festivals in Europe, South Korea, America and Russia. As an iPalpiti Artist alumna and chamber orchestra member, she has performed on stages such as Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

Kreeta‑Julia has performed as a soloist with, among others, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, Oulu Symphony Orchestra, the Vaasa, Lappeenranta and Kuopio city orchestras, as well as the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Johannes Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Sinfonietta, the Danish Chamber Orchestra and the Nordea Jean Sibelius Orchestra. In 2022, Heikkilä made her debut at Helsinki Music Centre as a soloist with the European Union Youth Orchestra.

In addition to international radio appearances, Heikkilä also performs as guest soloist and concertmaster on Rufus Wainwright’s albums Prima Donna and Take All My Loves – 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, released by Deutsche Grammophon, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. She also collaborates with composers such as Aki Yli‑Salomäki, Mari Sainio and Peter Morrison.

Heikkilä has been permanent concertmaster of the Vaasa City Orchestra (2012), the Danish Radio Chamber Orchestra (2013–present) and the Oulu Symphony Orchestra (2015). In addition to Finnish orchestras, she has also appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Norwegian and Arctic Opera Orchestras, the Stavanger and Trondheim Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Malmö Opera Orchestra. Since 2024, she has been second concertmaster of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to her concert activities, she strives to develop classical music culture by being co‑artistic director and violinist of the Helsinki Chamber Music Festival, which she founded in 2017. She also continues for the ninth year as artistic director of Minimalia, a concert series of minimalist music. As a member of the piano trio Teos, together with cellist Jaani Helander and pianist Jaan Ots, she performs regularly and has premiered works such as Peter Morrison’s politically charged Tunneled Visions.

Kreeta‑Julia has taught chamber music and violin at the Sibelius Academy since 2019. As a passionate teacher, she also gives violin masterclasses in Raudaskylä and Joutseno during the summers. Heikkilä began playing the violin at the age of five as a student of Geza Szilvay at the East Helsinki Music Institute.

She then studied at the Sibelius Academy with Tuomas Haapanen, Mi‑kyung Lee, Päivyt Meller and Tero Latvala and completed a Master of Music degree in 2015. She also graduated with excellent marks from the Royal College of Music in London (Master of Performance) in 2012, where she studied with Jan Repko, and from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2016 (soloist, advanced postgraduate diploma in music) with Tim Frederiksen as a member of Trio Nord.

Heikkilä has also distinguished herself in several Finnish and international violin and chamber music competitions and has been awarded scholarships, including the Pro Musica and Nordea scholarships. She plays a violin by Michele Deconet, which she borrows from Pro Filharmonia.

Jakob Bloch Jespersen

Tuomas Katajala

The Finnish tenor Tuomas Katajala is currently one of the most versatile and sought‑after tenors in the Nordic countries internationally, and he has achieved significant success both on opera and concert stages. He has performed at, among others, La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Berlin State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Cologne Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Seattle Opera in the United States, Theater an der Wien, Aix‑en‑Provence, Glyndebourne, the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Finnish National Opera. His roles have included the central lyric heldentenor roles, such as the title role in Wagner’s Lohengrin, Erik in The Flying Dutchman, the title role in Parsifal, David in Die Meistersinger, Loge in Das Rheingold, Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz, Grigori in Boris Godunov, Pollux in Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae, as well as Mozart’s central roles such as Idomeneo, Belmonte and Tamino.

In the autumn of 2025, Katajala has performed, among other things, in the Cologne Opera’s new production of Das Rheingold, given concerts in Palermo in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the Latvian National Opera. Katajala will make both a role and house debut when he appears as Bacchus in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in early 2026.

Katajala has an exceptionally extensive concert and oratorio repertoire, which includes over 100 performed works from the Baroque era to contemporary music. As a concert singer, Katajala has appeared at, among others, the Royal Albert Hall in London, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Salle Pleyel and L’Auditorium de Radio France in Paris, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Esplanade in Singapore, the Duomo in Milan, La Folle Journée in Tokyo, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

He has worked with several conductors, such as Kent Nagano, Enrique Mazzola, Marc Albrecht, Antonello Manacorda, Peter Schreier, Matthias Pintscher, Antonio Fogliani, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Klaus Mäkelä, Tarmo Peltokoski, Pablo Heras‑Casado, Andrey Boreyko, Esa‑Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Susanna Mälkki, Hannu Lintu, Tugan Sokhiev, Andrey Boreyko, Santtu‑Matias Rouvali, and with directors such as Harry Kupfer, Kasper Holten, Marco Arturo Marelli, Romeo Castellucci and Barrie Kosky.

Katajala has been awarded the Karita Mattila and Martti Talvela prizes, the Häme Art Prize, the Beniamino Gigli Prize and the medal of Sibelius’s birthplace.

Katajala has also served as the artistic director of the Espoo Urkuyö ja Aaria Festival since 2022.

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.

Petri Kumela

Petri Kumela has established his position as one of our country’s most versatile and interesting classical musicians, who is equally at home with period instruments as when working with contemporary composers. Kumela has won the Classical Emma and the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s Record of the Year awards, and he has been granted the State Prize for Music as part of the planning and organisation of the musical activities at Hietsu Pavilion. He is the only classical guitarist to have been nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize, and he has even been nominated for the Finlandia Junior children’s literature prize. Kumela is also one of our most international guitarists and known for his open‑mindedness and ability to transform himself, whether it is a recital in Kolkata, motorising guitars in Mexico or school concerts in Japan.

Petri Kumela studied at the Helsinki Conservatory under Juan Antonio Muro and in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg‑Augsburg in the class of Franz Hálasz. He was the first guitarist to be accepted into the prestigious Meisterklassen programme, and he was awarded the rare DAAD scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service for two consecutive years to continue his studies in Hálasz’s masterclass. As a complement to his studies, he has participated in numerous masterclasses, with teachers including Leo Brouwer, Oscar Chiglia, Alirio Díaz, Eduardo Egüez and David Russell.

Petri Kumela has won first prizes in the international guitar competitions “Scandinavian Guitar Festival” and “Stafford Classical Guitar Recital”. In addition to Finland, he has performed in several European countries, in South America, the United States, Russia, Japan, India and Bhutan. Concert venues have ranged from intimate home concerts to prestigious concert halls such as the Helsinki Music Centre, the Purcell Room (Southbank Centre) in London and the Kitara Hall in Sapporo.

In Finland he has been heard at numerous festivals and concert series, and Kumela has performed as an orchestral soloist with, among others, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfónica de Galicia, the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Kymi Sinfonietta and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, under conductors Olari Elts, Anna‑Maria Helsing, Juha Kangas, Massimo Lambertini, Rumon Gamba, Hannu Lintu, Ari Rasilainen, Yasuo Shinozaki, Dima Slobodeniouk, Dalia Stasevska and John Storgårds. In addition to solo concerts, he is also extremely active as a chamber musician and has performed with the Uusinta, defun, Insomnio and Tampere Raw ensembles, as well as with many other groups and musicians. Kumela is the guitar principal of the Avanti! chamber orchestra.

Petri Kumela is particularly dedicated to contemporary music and has premiered ten guitar concertos and numerous smaller works both in Finland and abroad. Composers who have dedicated works to him include Kalevi Aho, Minna Leinonen, Olli Kortekangas, Poul Ruders, Joachim F.W. Schneider, Sebastian Hilli, José‑María Sanchez‑Verdú, Lotta Wennäkoski and Pehr Henrik Nordgren.

Kumela has served as artistic director of the chamber music series of the Nordic Music Days (2013) and of the Sipoon Äänet festival (2017–2024). He has also been involved in founding and curating the state‑awarded concert series Klassinen Hietsu (2017–2024) and Hietsu is Happening! (2016– ).

Kumela teaches at the Sibelius Academy.

Petri Kumela has released eleven recordings: Recital (2002), Spellbound Tones – P.H. Nordgren’s works for guitar (2005), C.P.E. Bach, Transcriptions for Guitar (2007), Change is Gonna Come (2010) and Nebula – Paavo Korpijaakko’s works for guitar (2012). The album Oudossa Seurassa was released in November 2013 and was nominated both for the Emma Award in the classical category and for YLE’s Record of the Year. In 2016 Fantasía Andaluza was released together with flamenco guitarist Joonas Widenius, and in 2017 Goldberg with the German Jürgen Ruck. His recording of Fernando Sor’s music on period guitar, Solo Sor, was nominated for YLE’s Record of the Year, and the respected Classical Guitar Magazine selected it as one of the ten best albums of 2018. Kumela’s album Pieniä Otuksia – musiikillinen bestiaari (2020) was chosen as YLE’s Record of the Year and won the Classical Emma Award. The album contains 35 animal miniatures for guitar, each by a different composer. The book based on the music, Opus Otus (Otava), was in turn nominated for the Finlandia Junior prize. In autumn 2023 the album Exquisitely Absurd, recorded with Tapiola Sinfonietta and Dima Slobodeniouk and containing guitar concertos by Lotta Wennäkoski, Riikka Talvitie and Antti Auvinen (Alba), was released.

In addition to his recordings, Kumela has made several broadcasts for YLE and other international radio and television companies.

Mackenzie Melemed

Recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 29-year-old American pianist Mackenzie Melemed is among the most respected and experienced performers of his generation. The New York Times has described him as “an excellent young pianist,” and his playing combines exceptional technical mastery with a maturity that far surpasses his years. Melemed has received praise both as a virtuosic recitalist and as a sensitive chamber musician and orchestral soloist.

In recent seasons, Melemed has worked with several internationally renowned conductors and appeared as a soloist with distinguished orchestras around the world.

A recipient of the Steinway Artist designation, Melemed completed his bachelor’s, master’s and artist diploma studies at the Juilliard School under the guidance of Robert McDonald and Emanuel Ax. During his studies, he won several prestigious awards. In 2022, he was the only pianist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant, awarded by Lincoln Center to support exceptional American instrumentalists at the threshold of a solo career. He has also won the Maj Lind Piano Competition (2017) and received the chamber music prize in the same competition, earned the Jade Medal at the China International Music Competition (2019), and been recognized in the American Pianists Awards (2021).

His concerts often combine traditional and more rarely performed repertoire, and he hopes listeners will find a connection even to the lesser-known works and be inspired to explore new composers.

Melemed is also a dedicated pedagogue. He runs his own online studio and recently launched the YouTube series Pianostics: Diagnostics for Pianists.

https://www.mackenziemelemed.com/

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 »»

Kati Raitinen

Kati Raitinen combines her work as principal cellist at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm with numerous chamber music projects both at domestic and international venues. As a member of the string trio ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen, she has won three Swedish Grammis Awards and a fourth for the Zilliacus Quartet's debut album 2024. She shares artistic leadership with violinist Cecilia Zilliacus in Stockholm Concert Hall's chamber music series "Äntligen måndag’" (Finally monday). In addition to numerous CD recordings, she has made many radio and television recordings, the most recent of which is a short film of Rita Strohl's song Solitude with pianist Bengt Forsberg for SVT. At the Mänttä Art Festival 2022, Kati Raitinen was one of the participating artists with her work Surun jukeboksi (The Jukebox of Sorrow), created in collaboration with guitar maker Christian Lindblad. Raitinen came to Stockholm to study with Professor Frans Helmerson. Since 2020, she has been teaching cello at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Kati Raitinen is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

The Brass Septet Cono

The brass septet Cono is a brass ensemble founded in 2019. As an ensemble, Cono continues the globally unique Finnish brass septet tradition by performing the classics of septet music alongside new compositions and commissioned works. The ensemble’s instrumentation consists of one E♭ cornet, two B♭ cornets, alto, tenor and baritone horns, and tuba.

In the early 1900s, during the golden age of the Finnish septet tradition, nearly every village and factory had a brass septet responsible for all the community’s music-making, from devotional moments to dance music. Composers of the time, such as Jean Sibelius, Leevi Madetoja and Toivo Kuula, wrote music for brass septet precisely because of the ensemble’s immense popularity. By the time the 2000s arrived, this tradition—found only in Finland—had nearly faded into lost folklore, and only a fraction of the septets remained compared to the peak of the previous century.

Now the septet tradition has experienced a revival, and Cono is one of the ensembles born from this new wave. The group, originally founded by music students at the Sibelius Academy, has since become professional and formed a permanent ensemble with regular players. As an ensemble, Cono has set as its goal the development of the septet tradition by actively commissioning and performing new music for brass septet alongside the classics. Cono plays conical instruments belonging to the original brass septet instrumentation. Cono is Italian and means cone.

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

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