Asko Heiskanen has started his clarinet playing in his hometown Kuopio in Finland and continued it in the Sibelius Academy and in the Conservatoire Superieur de Geneve. He has also been studying chamber music with professor Ralf Gothóni and historical clarinets with Lorenzo Coppola. He has achieved success in competition as well, most notably the first prize in Crusell clarinet competition in 1995. Heiskanen has performed as a soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician in many music festivals. Since 1996 Asko Heiskanen has been member of the Tapiola Sinfonietta –chamber orchestra. He also plays historical clarinets and chalumeaus with Ensemble Schrat, Trio Origo, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra.
Parisian David Chaillou composes works for orchestras and smaller ensembles, but also music for the stage and films. He is no stranger to electronic music either.
The son of the famous French writer Michel Chaillou, he began studying piano at the age of seven. His studies continued at the Paris Conservatory, where he graduated in piano, acoustic music and harmony. At the Sorbonne University, he studied history and music history. The topic of his doctoral thesis was French opera, and it was also published as a book under the title Napoléon et l'Opéra: La politique sur la scène (1810–1815).
Chaillou, who has received several awards and recognitions for his diverse work, has also dedicated himself to music education. He has composed for children, including the opera Little Nemo. It is based on the American comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, which first appeared in The New York Herald in 1905.
Currently, Chaillou is an assistant professor at the ESPE University in Lille Nord, where he teaches music education to future teachers. He has also taught music analysis at the Sorbonne and Lorraine universities.
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.
Gabriel Kivivuori Sereno is a Mexican-Finnish baritone, composer and pianist. He is awarded in the 32nd Timo Mustakallio singing competition and Helsinki Lied competition. He won the first price in the 4th Uuno Klami composition competition for young composers in 2022. Kivivuori Sereno is recently finishing his bachlor’s degree at the Sibelius Academy song as his main subject and composition as the second subject.
In spite of his young age Kivivuori Sereno has performed with outstanding artists and orchestras and had roles in opera productions. In 2024 Kivivuori Sereno was nominated as soloist of the year by Päivi and Paavo Lipponen’s Trust Fund and young artist of the year by Kaustinen Chamber Music Week.
Helsinki Police Symphonic Band is a professional symphonic band comprising 43 musicians. The band has been performing for over 70 years. It represents the Finnish Police through music in different events nationally and internationally and is especially known for its versatility. In addition to wind compositions, the band’s repertoire includes folk music, jazz, rock, pop and children’s music.
The Band was founded in 1947 to promote relations between citizens and the police. Preventative work has been important for them throughout their existence. The full orchestra performs over 100 awareness-raising concerts aimed at children and teenagers every year all around Finland. The band seeks continually new Finnish music for it’s repertoire. Since 2012 Sami Ruusuvuori has been the chief conductor of the orchestra.
In 2020 the Finnish Wind Band Association granted the Wind Band Of The Year award to Helsinki Police Symphonic Band.
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.
Jukka Orma can rightly be called a Finnish guitar legend. He has had a multi-generational career since the late 1970s. Over the decades, Orma has played in an astonishing number of Finnish bands, such as Hassinen kone, Sielun Veljet, Hurriganes and Piirpauke, as well as in the backing bands of Rauli Badding Somerjoki and M.A. Numminen. During his career, Jukka Orma has released three solo albums and has been a producer for many bands.
Over the past year, Orma has been touring and recording blues-pop, focusing on freer musical improvisation and composing music for his upcoming album. He composed the music for his 2012 recording Öisin olemme samanlaisia to poems by his wife Anja Snellman.
Born in Iitti, Katariina Ruokonen is trained as both a violinist and a viola player. She began her studies at the Pohjois-Kymi Music Institute, and completed her professional degree at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences with Anatoli Melnikov and Ulla Kekko. Ruokonen has also studied violin at the Liszt Academy in Budapest under Professor Mária Vermes. She has played in several different orchestras and has given concerts with them, for example in China, Japan and various parts of Europe. Ruokonen currently works as a viola player at the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and also plays in chamber music ensembles.
Konsta Hietanen is known as an actor, singer, songwriter and football player. He began his singing career by winning the Tenavatähdet singing competition with the song “Daa-da, daa-da” in 1994. Since then, he has sung, acted in films, been a voice actor in cartoons and appeared in television series. Hietanen is one of the most active giggers in our country and has a career as both a singer-songwriter and a soloist. He mostly gigs with his own band or alone with his guitar, but has also performed as a soloist with large orchestras.
Harpist, composer and visual artist Laura Hynninen has performed as a soloist and chamber musician since the 90’s. She studied the harp in Sibelius Academy with Riitta Paavola and Willy Postma. Laura Hynninen had permanent positions as a principal harpist in Finnish National Opera (2000-2013) and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2013-2015) before switching over as a free lancer. Laura Hynninen is also the artistic director of Sysmän Suvisoitto music festival, and is known for her versatile work over different genres.
In her solo projects Laura Hynninen combines her own music and visual art in a unique way. She has been awarded several times, f.e. Yle’s Record of the Year 2021, Emma music award nomination 2022 and 2024, L.I.E.D. composing competition special prize 2024, Pro Musica award 2024, and Indie Awards prize 2025.
Pianist Laura Mikkola founded the Iitti Music Festival in 2003 and has been the festival's Artistic Director ever since.
Mikkola, who lives in Paris, performs extensively in Europe and beyond. She is particularly known as a profound connoisseur and interpreter of Eino-Juhani Rautavaara. She has recorded all of Rautavaara's piano concertos and solo piano works, as well as works composed for solo piano by Einar Englund.
Having won numerous piano competitions at the age of under 20, Mikkola has worked with the most renowned conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hannu Linnu, Leif Segerstam, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Ahmed El-Saed. In 2024, Laura Mikkola was elected a Steinway Artist in Hamburg, Germany. The title is given to the best pianists of their era.
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.
Guitarist, singer and songwriter Jukka Orma has been boiled in many rhythmic broths over the decades. His collaboration with bassist Mikko Löytty began in the 90s in Hurriganes. Drummer Harri Ala-Kojola plays with Löytty in the band SF Blues while being a trusted drummer for many TV productions. OL&A's repertoire consists of classics, surprises and their own productions.
Lyric soprano Olga Heikkilä is an opera singer whose repertoire ranges from Renaissance to Contemporary Music. Heikkilä is enjoying an international career and in recent years has performed at the San Francisco Opera (2024), the Royal Opera of England (2023), the Dutch National Opera (2023), the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival (2019) and the Berlin State Opera (2017). Heikkilä is a regular guest soloist at the Finnish National Opera and Savonlinna Opera Festival. Heikkilä has sung numerous roles in traditional opera repertoire, baroque operas as well as experimental contemporary world premieres. Her voice has inspired several Finnish composers and she has both premiered and commissioned several contemporary works. In addition, Heikkilä also composes herself.
Heikkilä is also a dedicated vocal pedagogy at the vocal music department of Sibelius Academy. She is currently completing her artistic doctorate at the DocMus Doctoral School of the Sibelius Academy studying Sprechgesang and the expressiveness of voice.
Pepe Willberg's musical career has been amazing. His success began in the 1960s with the band Islander and has continued uninterrupted for over 60 years as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. Willberg's songs from the 60s and 70s, such as Elämältä kaiken sain, Saat miehen kyyneliin, Taivas itkee sadoiin pisaroin, have become icons of Finnish pop music.
During his career, Willberg has composed music for himself as well as other artists and has been successful in various composition competitions. In recent years, he himself says that he has been "working below the surface", but the huge success of the album Pepe & Saimaa brought him back into the Finnish consciousness.
Willberg has received several awards in his career, the most recent being: Iskelmä Finlandia 2011, Kultalevy 2014, and three awards at the Emma Gala in 2015: Male Soloist of the Year, Rock Album of the Year and Critics' Choice. British music magazine MOJO chose Pepe & Saimaa as the album of the year 2014.
In 2016 Willberg celebrated his 50th anniversary as an artist and his 70th birthday.
Sami Junnonen enjoys a varied and successful career as an internationally acclaimed flutist. His virtuosity, musicality, and comfort within a wide and diverse repertoire have led him to collaborate with a remarkable array of celebrated artists, composers, and ensembles. His 2012 debut recital at the Helsinki Music Centre in his native Finland, and his 2018 solo debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Texas, USA, received outstanding reviews.
In addition to his solo career, Junnonen has served as principal flutist in several renowned orchestras, including the Iceland Symphony, the Cairo Symphony, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia in the UK. He has taught flute and chamber music performance at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Fordham University in New York, USA, and has conducted masterclasses around the world.
His recording of The Complete W.A. Mozart Flute Quartets with Chamber Domaine, released by Resonus Classics, won the Audience Award in the Finnish Album of the Year 2018, promoted by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). His 2024 release, Flute Concertos – Ibert, Jolivet & Rodrigo (Resonus Classics), was chosen as the Album of the Week by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). The Flute View, the leading American flute magazine, described the release as "a colossal album that will inspire for generations to come".
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.
Tom Pöysti graduated from theatre school in 1979. He worked as an actor in theatres, on TV and on the radio until 2002. He is one of the founding members of the Comedy Theatre. Tom Pöysti is a popular speaker who combines humour with profound insights in a surprising way. In his lectures, he likes to discuss the importance of attitude, courage and dedication. As his motto, he mentions the phrase: “The past is the past. It should not be denied. This moment is a challenge that must be overcome. But tomorrow is what I thirst for”. In 2024, Pöysti published a book with musician and actor Mato Valtonen, 112 oivallusta elämästä (112 insights into life).
Tomas Nuñez began his cello studies at the Åland Music Institute at the age of six. He continued his studies at the Turku Conservatory and later at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 2010 he won first prize at the XI Cello Competition in Turku. He was also rewarded for the best performance of the work commissioned for the competition and voted as the public's favorite.
Nuñez performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and has played with orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded and premiered many chamber music and solo works. Since 2017 he has been the Principal Cellist in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Nuñez plays a Lorenzo & Tomaso Carcassi cello from 1779, owned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE.
Violinist and conductor Tuomas Rousi has performed as a chamber musician at numerous festivals in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. As a conductor, he has conducted the most important Finnish orchestras and also orchestras elsewhere in Europe and beyond.
Rousi studied violin at the Turku Conservatory, Paris and Switzerland, as well as at the Utrecht Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy. In the conducting class at the Sibelius Academy, he studied under Jorma Panula, Atso Almila, Eri Klas and Leif Segerstam. He currently conducts the Helsinki Concordia, the Metropolia Orchestra and the Kauniainen Orchestra. In the second international Sibelius Conducting Competition in 2000, he received the Yleisradio special prize and was among the top six.