Sami Ruusuvuori

Conductor

Doctor of Music Sami Ruusuvuori serves as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Police Symphonic Band. Ruusuvuori has previously worked as the conductor of the Representative Orchestra of the President of the Republic, the Guards Band and the Chief Conductor of the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces. He has a deep understanding of classical, jazz and commercial music which has allowed him to work with many of Finland’s best musicians. 

Ruusuvuori is a strong proponent of new music and has commissioned and premiered many new pieces. Ruusuvuori completed his doctorate in music in the spring of 2022 with a thesis on the Symphonic wind band and the European repertoire composed for it. His research has attracted widespread international interest. Since 2023, Ruusuvuori has been President of the Finnish Wind Band Association and from 2024 on the Board of the World Association of Symphony Orchestras and Ensembles.

Kuva: Tommy Levy

Juhani Lagerspetz

Piano

Juhani Lagerspetz made his debut as soloist at the age of thirteen, playing Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto with Okko Kamu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has won competitions in Finland (the Ilmari Hannikainen piano competition in 1975 and the Maj Lind Competition in 1976) and placed well in international competitions too, his most significant achievement being special prize of the jury at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1982. 

During his long career Lagerspetz  has collaborated with many outstanding conductors and orchestras in Europe. He is also active as a chamber musician. Lagerspetz has performed dozens of piano concertos and an extensive series of concert programs: such as the four Rachmaninov piano concertos on two consecutive evenings or works by Beethoven, Brahms and Ravel. He has made numerous recordings. 

Lagerspetz is also a tenured teacher in piano at the Sibelius Academy. In 2009 he was appointed as a piano professor of the Sibelius Academy for a five-year term.

Fredrika Mikkola

Violin

Fredrika Mikkola is in her final year of studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris under the direction of maestro Philippe Graffin. Mikkola's musical speciality was noticed early on. She has been taught by Professor Tuomas Haapanen right up until the latter's last years. In Paris, Mikkola has taken lessons from Constantin Bogdanas and Florin Sziget and studied under José Alvarés. At the Iitti Music Festival, she has played increasingly demanding repertoire year after year alongside her mother, pianist Laura Mikkola.

Photo: Tiina Närkki

Michel Runtz

Composer

The French-Swiss pianist and composer Michel Runtz began his classical piano studies in Paris, but became interested in composing at an early age. Encouraged by his teachers, he began to search for his own musical language. Runtz is known as a versatile and experimental composer. He has sought aesthetic influences from, for example, the visual arts, and has explored the integration of light elements into his compositions. Among visual artists, he was particularly impressed by the surrealist painter Paul Devaux, with whom he became friends and to whom he has dedicated his works.

Michel Runtz's compositions are popular in the repertoire of international piano competitions. Runtz has founded the renowned Fribourg International Piano Competition for Young Pianists and the Shanghai Sino-Swiss Piano Competition. Both of these competitions focus on new piano music. Runtz teaches and lectures diligently and has worked as a teacher in his hometown of Fribourg, as well as at the conservatories of Shanghai, Geneva, Strasbourg and Ruiel-Malmaison.