Mahler 1

Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation, demonstrating remarkable musical depth and integrity. Born in Heinola, Finland, he began his career as a violinist before training as a conductor with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
In April 2022, Jukka-Pekka was named as chief conductor and artistic director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, where he will begin his tenure in Summer 2023. From 2010 to 2019, he served as chief conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne. Previously, he was music director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra where he was subsequently appointed conductor laureate. Earlier positions include the principal conductorships of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he is now conductor laureate; and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He founded the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, where he remains the artistic advisor. He also is a founding member of the LEAD! Foundation, a mentorship program for young conductors and soloists. It includes the annual Fiskars Summer Festival, created as an international platform where experienced artists pass on their knowledge to the next generation of conductors.
Guest engagements have Jukka-Pekka to major orchestras worldwide, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and the leading Scandinavian orchestras. In North America, he has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic as well as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
His extensive discography includes the complete symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and several critically acclaimed recordings with Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His CDs with the WDR Symphony Orchestra with works by Mahler, Schönberg, Stravinsky, Brahms, Bruckner, and the complete symphonies of Beethoven, have received widespread acknowledgement.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste has received the Pro Finlandia Medal, the Sibelius Medal, the Finnish State Prize for Music, and the insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland. He holds honorary doctorates from York University, Toronto and Sibelius Academy, Helsinki.

Born in the United States and raised in Finland, Elina Vähälä made her orchestral debut with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at age 12 and was later chosen by Osmo Vänskä as the orchestra’s young master soloist. Her career has developed on the international stage, winning praise as “a fluent, stylish and gifted musician whose brilliant technique is matched by an abundant spirit, sensitivity and imagination.” (Chicago Tribune)

Elina appears regularly with key Finnish orchestras as well being a guest of countless high-profile orchestras across the globe from Houston to Istanbul and has toured throughout the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, China, Korea, and South America. She enjoys a fruitful working partnership with many leading conductors and has appeared at festivals in Tampere, Clandeboye, Seoul, and Oulu, where she had been appointed co-artistic director, together with saxophonist Jukka Perko.

In 2022, Elina premiered the original 1904 version of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in North America with the Minnesota Orchestra. She has given additional world premieres of Aulis Sallinen’s Chamber Concerto, Curtis Curtis-Smith’s Double Concerto, Jaakko Kuusisto’s Concerto, and Kalevi Aho’s Concerto No. 2, all of which were written for her, as well as the Jan Sandström’s Concerto. She gave the first Nordic performance of Corigliano’s Violin Concerto, The Red Violin, and continues to be one of the soloists of choice for this work. Befitting her Finnish roots, she is one of very few to perform the Sibelius concerto in its early version.

Elina’s affinity with the music of the 20th and 21st centuries is evident in recent recordings: a disc devoted to the music of Aho, including his Violin Concerto No. 2, and a project with the Polish National Radio Symphony and Alexander Liebreich focusing on Szymanowski.

In 2009, Elina launched the Violin Academy; funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the academy is a masterclass-based educational project for highly talented young Finnish violinists. Previously professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany, she has been professor at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna since 2019. She performs with a 1780 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.