Matti Raekallio
(Finland)
Finnish pianist Matti Raekallio can look back at a 50-year career as international concert pianist and a 45-year career as pedagogue in top schools, including the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Hochschule in Hanover, Germany, and NYC’s Juilliard School. He has performed complete cycles of the piano of Beethoven, Scriabin, and Prokofiev and recorded about 20 CDs.
Lue lisää
Finnish pianist Matti Raekallio can look back at a 50-year career as international concert pianist and a 45-year career as pedagogue in top schools, including the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Hochschule in Hanover, Germany, and NYC’s Juilliard School, where he taught for 14 years.
He studied first in his home country and then with Maria Curcio in London, England, with Dieter Weber at the Vienna Academy of Music in Austria, and at the Leningrad Conservatory in Russia. He did his Doctorate at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Mr. Raekallio has performed complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Beethoven, Scriabin, and Prokofiev, as well as altogether 62 piano concertos. He has made about 20 CDs, including an acclaimed set of the Prokofiev Sonatas.
Many of his students have made big international careers as pianists, notably Igor Levit, Tony Siqi Yun and Antti Siirala. From Mr. Raekallio’s studio have also emerged, along with several first prizewinners in major international competitions, about 30 professors in Europe, Asia and America. He regularly serves as a juror and gives master classes in the USA, Europe and Asia.
In 2022 Mr. Raekallio retired from his faculty positions at Juilliard and at the Sibelius Academy. Currently he lives in Helsinki, doing selective free lance work as teacher, adjudicator, and pianist.
Stefan Bojsten
(Sweden)
Stefan Bojsten is one of the most established and well known Swedish pianist and a professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He has appeared as a soloist with most Swedish orchestras and performed all over Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and North America. Bojsten is also chairman and producer for one of Sweden’s currently most renowned music series “Piano Music at the Academy of Arts”.
Lue lisää
Stefan Bojsten is one of the most established and well known pianists in Sweden. He has appeared as a soloist with most Swedish orchestras and performed all over Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and North America. Among many prizes in international piano and chamber music competitions the height was in 1985 when the duo Bojsten – Almgren won the first prize in one of the world’s biggest chamber music competitions; the Premio Vittorio Gui in Florens which resulted in invitations to festivals and tours all over Europe.
Bojsten is educated at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He has also studied in London and New York, tutored by Phyllis Sellick and Arthur Balsam among others. Since 1997, Stefan is a professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He is also a frequent masterclass guest at other universities, and regularly serves as a jury member in international piano competitions around the world.
Bojsten is also chairman and producer for one of Sweden’s currently most renowned music series “Piano Music at the Academy of Arts”. He has recorded albums with many major classical labels, including Polar, Caprice, Bis, Naxos, Fermat, Artemis, MAP, recut, Musica Sveciae and Opus 3.
Naoko Ichihashi
(Finland)
Naoko Ichihashi has been a lecturer at the Sibelius Academy since 2014. She is a respected and active musician and is constantly performing at chamber music events and is a pianist of International Paulo Cello competition and Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. Ichihashi is also a member of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra.
Lue lisää
Naoko Ichihashi graduated from Tokyo’s Toho Music High school in 1981 and got to Indiana University in the same year to study the piano with György Sebök. In 1986, she was awarded the best accompanist at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
1987 Ichihashi graduated from the University of Indiana and moved to Finland and started to work at the Sibelius Academy. That same year, she became a member of Avanti! Which is a chamber orchestra. She made her first concert in Helsinki in 1990. In the years 1991-1992 he studied at Ecole Normal in Paris and received a diploma in Licence de concert. In 1993 she received the second prize at Oulu Chamber Music Competition. She has been a lecturer at the Sibelius Academy since 2014.
She is a respected and active musician and is constantly performing at chamber music events and is a pianist of International Paulo Cello competition and Jean Sibelius Violin Competition.
Heini Kärkkäinen
(Finland)
Heini Kärkkäinen is an internationally active chamber musician. She has appeared at numerous festivals and premiered a significant amount of Finnish contemporary music. Kärkkäinen has made award-winning recordings, including Yleisradio’s Record of the Year. Since 2024, she has been a lecturer at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, teaching chamber music and pedagogy.
Lue lisää
Heini Kärkkäinen studied piano at the Sibelius Academy under Professor Liisa Pohjola from 1984 to 1991 (Master of Music) and furthered her studies with Ralf Gothóni and Jacques Rouvier (Paris). She won the Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Competition in 1984 and placed second in the Maj Lind Piano Competition in 1986.
Kärkkäinen has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. She also performs extensively across Europe and the United States as a chamber musician. She collaborates closely with chamber musicians Robert Cohen, Priya Mitchell, Réka Szilvay, and Yuval Gotlibovich.
Heini Kärkkäinen has appeared at numerous festivals, including Kuhmo Chamber Music, Oxford Music Festival, Holstebro International Music Festival, Pärnu Music Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Charleston Manor Festival, and Caceres Music Festival.
She has premiered a significant amount of contemporary Finnish music, including works by Jouni Kaipainen, Mikko Heiniö, Magnus Lindberg, Aulis Sallinen, Olli Koskelin, Marzi Nyman, and Outi Tarkiainen.
Kärkkäinen has made several award-winning recordings. Her duo album with Jan-Erik Gustafsson (Ondine) received the Yleisradio Record of the Year award in 1994. An album featuring the music of Camille Saint-Saëns (BIS Classics) was the BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Month in March 2007 and was recommended by Gramophone magazine. Other recordings include a Sibelius album with Pekka Kuusisto (Ondine) and Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion (RSO/Jumppanen/Oramo/Warner Classics).
In addition to her solo career, Heini Kärkkäinen has been a senior lecturer in piano at Tampere University of Applied Sciences since 2010 and will become a lecturer in 2024. Her teaching also includes chamber music and pedagogy.
In autumn 2024, Heini Kärkkäinen will perform as a piano soloist in the Finnish National Ballet’s production of “Death in Venice.” This two-act ballet, choreographed by the legendary John Neumeier, is based on the novella by Thomas Mann.
Mihkel Poll
(Estonia)
Mihkel Poll has performed throughout Europe, in Asia and the U.S. in many important concert halls and has recorded award-winning albums. He has served as the Artist-in-Residence with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Poll has won several international competitions and leads the Classical Music Department at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Lue lisää
Mihkel Poll has performed throughout Europe, in Asia and the U.S. in many important concert halls such as Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall in London, the Grand Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmony, Grande Salle Pierre Boulez of Paris Philharmony, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Stockholm Berwaldhallen and Tbilisi Khakidze Center.
Mihkel Poll has been an artist-in-residence with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and he has toured several times as a soloist with the Estonian National SO under Neeme Järvi and with the Nordic Symphony Orchestra under Anu Tali.
He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Pasdeloup Orchestra, Nordic Symphony Orchestra, Corinthian Chamber Orchestra, Braunschweig Staatskapelle, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Norrbotten Chamber Orchestra, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia of Birmingham, Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie and others. He has worked with conductors Neeme Järvi, Arvo Volmer, Eri Klas, Paul Mägi, Anu Tali, Olari Elts, Mikhail Agrest. Srba Dinić, Mihhail Gerts, Elena Schwarz, Mikk Murdvee, Michael Seal, Richard Laing, Matt Andrews, Jüri Alperten, and others.
In 2009 Mihkel Poll’s debut CD “20th Century Piano” was released by Ondine. In 2015 his second solo album was released under the DUX label with works from Enescu, Bartok, Tüür and Kõrvits, receiving the Best Estonian Classical Album 2016 award. In 2021 his recording of piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninov and Eduard Tubin with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Mihhail Gerts was released by DUX.
He is also an active chamber musician and performs regularly in a duo with her sister, violinist Mari Poll. In 2017 they released a CD under the DUX label, which received high critical acclaim from the BBC Music Magazine and the Grammphone, as well as the nomination for the Best Estonian Classical Album 2017. Together with cellist Henry-David Varema they perform as the piano trio Poll-Varema-Poll, which is gaining international recognition with upcoming debut concerts at the Berlin Konzerthaus and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. In 2021 their debut CD „Estonian Piano Trios” was released by DUX.
Mihkel Poll is a member of the piano faculty and head of the Department of Classical Music Performance at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He has given masterclasses in Europe and Asia.
He has won numerous prizes at international competitions including 1st prize and the orchestra’s special award at the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Italy (2004), 1st prize and a special prize at the Tallinn International Piano Competition in Estonia (2006) and 1st prize at the Ferrol International Piano Competition in Spain (2006), to name a few.
Mihkel Poll studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Prof Ivari Ilja and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Prof Ronan O´Hora. He has also attended masterclasses of Prof Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy.
He is a recipient of the Estonian Cultural Endowment award (2004, 2018, 2020 & 2023) and the Presidential Young Cultural Figure award (2013).