Satu Vänskä, violin

Satu was born to a Finnish family in Japan, where she took her first violin lessons at the age of 3. Her family moved back to Finland in 1989 and she continued her studies with Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy. From 1997 she was a pupil of Ana Chumachenco at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, where she finished her diploma in 2001.

At the age of 11 Satu was selected for the Kuhmo Violin School in Finland, a special institution for talented young violinists, where she attended master classes with Ilya Grubert, Zinaida Gilels, and Pavel Vernikov and had the opportunity to perform at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival with the Kuhmo Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra.

In 1998 Sinfonia Lahti named her “young soloist of the year.” From 2001 she played under the auspices of the Live Music Now Foundation founded by Lord Yehudi Menuhin, which gave her the opportunity to perform with musicians like Radu Lupu and Heinrich Schiff. During her studies in Germany she played with the Munich Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and was a tutor with the Young Bavarian Philharmonic.

Ms. Vänskä has performed as a soloist in Finland, Germany, Spain, and Canada and as a chamber musician she has been invited to festivals in Finland and Germany, such as the Tuusulanjärvi Festival (with Pekka Kuusisto and Olli Mustonen) and the Festivo Aschau. She has also recorded chamber music, most recently a BIS CD of music by Jean Sibelius.