Elina Vähälä (born 15 October 1975,

Iowa City Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's fifth-most populous city. The Iowa City metropolitan area, which enc ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

) is a Finnish classical violinist.

Biography

Born in the United States in Iowa City, Iowa, Vähälä began violin studies at the age of three, following her family's return to Finland, at the Lahti conservatory. Her teachers at Lahti included Seppo Reinikainen and Pertti Sutinen. She also studied at the Kuhmo Violin School with Zinaida Gilels, Ilya Grubert and Pavel Vernikov. At the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy (, ) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki ...

Vähälä's teacher was Tuomas Haapanen. Vähälä made her concerto debut at age 12 with the

Lahti Symphony Orchestra The Lahti Symphony Orchestra (''Sinfonia Lahti'') is a Finland, Finnish orchestra, based in the city of Lahti. The orchestra is resident at the Sibelius Hall. The orchestra was founded in 1910, and placed under the control of the Lahti municipali ...

(Sinfonia Lahti), conducted by Osmo Vänskä. Vähälä subsequently served as "Young Master Soloist" for the 1993-1994 season with Sinfonia Lahti. Since then, she has regularly collaborated with Sinfonia Lahti on a regular basis, performing as featured soloist on tours in Sweden, UK, South America and Central Europe. Vähälä was one of the winners of the 1999 Young Concert Artists competition in New York. She gave her New York debut at the

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the You ...

in 1999. In 2008, she was chosen to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony which was televised to a worldwide audience. Vähälä has given world premieres of Aulis Sallinen's ''Chamber Concerto'' and Curtis Curtis-Smith's ''Double Concerto'', both written for her and her former husband Ralf Gothóni. In addition, Vähälä gave the Nordic first performance of John Corigliano’s Violin Concerto ''The Red Violin'' and commissioned a new violin concerto from composer Jaakko Kuusisto. Both the Corgiliano and Kuusisto concertos were recorded for BIS in 2012 and released in 2013. In September 2015, Vähälä performed the original 1904 version of the

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

, the third documented live performance of the original version, with the

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finnish: ''Radion sinfoniaorkesteri'', Swedish: ''Radions symfoniorkester''; abbreviated as RSO) is a Finnish Radio orchestra, broadcast orchestra based in Helsinki, and the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasti ...

conducted by

Hannu Lintu Hannu Petteri Lintu (born 13 October 1967) is a Finnish conductor. Early life and education Hannu Lintu was born in Rauma, the son of Johannes Lintu, an electrical engineer, and his wife Lilja Lintu (née Toivonen), a photographer. He studied p ...

. In January 2022, Vähälä gave the North American premiere of the original 1904 version of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in two performances with Osmo Vänskä and the

Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History Th ...

. Vähälä is a founding member of the Violin Academy (''Viuluakatemia Ry''). Funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the academy is a master class based educational project for selected, highly talented young Finnish violinists. Vähälä has been as a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold (2009-2012) and at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe (2012-2019). Since the autumn of 2019, she is a professor of violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Vähäla performs on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin from 1780.

References

External links

Official homepage of Elina Vähälä
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vahala, Elina Finnish women violinists 1975 births Living people 21st-century Finnish classical violinists