Serenadi elämälle

Anna-Maria Helsing, conductor

Anna-Maria Helsing has gained recognition especially as a conductor of leading Nordic orchestras and opera houses. She was appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London in 2023, having served as the orchestra’s first Guest Conductor since 2020. From 2010 to 2013, Helsing served as Chief Conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first woman in Finland to be appointed to such a position. From 2025 onwards, she will serve as Chief Conductor of the Vaasa City Orchestra.

Within a short period, Helsing has conducted all of Finland’s and Sweden’s major orchestras, as well as several orchestras in other Nordic countries, the Baltics, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. She has worked with many major orchestras abroad, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, she has conducted productions at the Finnish National Opera, the Savonlinna Opera Festival, the Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Operas, the Icelandic Opera, the Gothenburg Opera, and the Stockholm Folkoperan.

After completing her studies at the Sibelius Academy under Leif Segerstam’s conducting class, Helsing was invited to participate in the Allianz Foundation’s International Conductors’ Academy in London, where she was mentored by, among others, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel. In 1999, Helsing won first prize in the International Competition for Young Conductors of New Music in Warsaw. She completed her violin diploma at the Pietarsaari Conservatory and the Bydgoszcz Academy of Music in Poland and has attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Vladimir Jurowski, and John Carewe.

Modernism and contemporary music are particularly close to Helsing’s heart.

Elina Vähälä, violin

Born in Iowa, USA, but having moved to Finland as a small child, Elina Vähälä is one of Finland’s most internationally recognized violinists. She began practicing at the age of three and recalls becoming inspired to play the violin after watching the television program Viuluviikarit (“The Little Violinists”). When she received her own violin from her grandmother, the familiar sounds, legatos, and vibratos she had heard on television became a personal reality — and her career choice was clear from that moment on.

Vähälä began studying violin in Lahti at the Päijät-Häme Conservatory under Seppo Reinikainen and continued for eight years in Pertti Sutinen’s class. During those years, she also studied at the Kuhmo Violin School with Zinaida Gilels, Ilya Grubert, and Pavel Vernikov. At the Sibelius Academy, she studied under Tuomas Haapanen. Other important mentors have included Ana Chumachenco and Peter Csaba. Toward the end of her studies, she won the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions competition in New York in 1999.

Vähälä made her debut as a concerto soloist at the age of twelve with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in her hometown. The collaboration has remained close ever since; the orchestra named her Young Soloist of the Year for the 1993–1994 season, and she has been a regular guest ever since, including on tours to Asia, South America, and Central Europe.

Vähälä has earned her reputation as a radiant and remarkably versatile musician through her wide-ranging repertoire, spanning from the Baroque to contemporary works and premieres by leading composers of our time. In 2012, she premiered the Violin Concerto by Jaakko Kuusisto, a piece she had commissioned herself, and recorded it in 2013 for BIS Records together with John Corigliano’s The Red Violin Concerto. In September 2015, she performed on television the rarely heard early version of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, long considered impossible to play, as soloist with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. The most recent major concerto premiered by her is Kalevi Aho’s Violin Concerto from 2016. Composer Aulis Sallinen has also dedicated works to her.

In the current season, Vähälä has premiered Cecilia Damström’s Earth Songs with the TampereRaw ensemble and Olli Mustonen’s Violin Concerto as soloist with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Other highlights include Aulis Sallinen’s Violin Concerto with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. During the 2024–25 season, she will also appear in Finland as soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Oulu Symphony, and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. International engagements include performances with the Wrocław Philharmonic and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Recently, Vähälä has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as a chamber musician at the Adelaide Festival.

Chamber music is Vähälä’s great passion. In recent years, she has performed at festivals such as Kuhmo, Naantali, Prades (Casals Festival), Delft, Eindhoven, and the West Cork and Clandeboye festivals in Ireland. Her collaboration with these festivals continues to flourish in upcoming seasons.

Alongside her performing career, Vähälä serves as Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and she is also the Artistic Director of the Naantali Music Festival.

Elina Vähälä plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin from 1780.

Wegelius Chamber Strings