prof. lILLI MAIJALA
Lilli Maijala (Finland), has been Head of the Viola Faculty at the renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki since 2011, alongside an active international career as both a soloist and chamber musician. In September 2023, she was appointed Professor of Viola at the Zurich University of the Arts.
She has appeared as a featured soloist with orchestras including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, and Tapiola Sinfonietta, working with conductors such as Nathalie Stutzmann, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and John Storgårds.
In 2013, she gave the world premiere of Lauri Kilpiö’s Viola Concerto with Jyväskylä Sinfonia. Her recent recordings include Pehr Henrik Nordgren’s Concerto for Viola, Double Bass and Chamber Orchestra (with Olivier Thiery and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra) and Pēteris Vasks’ Viola Concerto (with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra), both conducted by Juha Kangas.
Maijala has received critical acclaim at several international competitions, including the ARD International Music Competition, the Nordic Viola Competition, and the Viola Space Tokyo International Viola Competition. In 2003, she was awarded first prize at the Klassik Festival Ruhr.
Currently based in Amsterdam, she performs regularly at leading festivals such as the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, Festival Resonances, Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival, Oslo Kammermusikkfest, Musikdorf Ernen, and the Delft Chamber Music Festival.
She was previously a member of the acclaimed ensemble quartet-lab, performing with Pieter Wispelwey, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Pekka Kuusisto, and is now a member of the newly founded Valo Quartet.
After extensive studies in Germany and Scandinavia with teachers including Diemut Poppen and Lars Anders Tomter, she is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of violists.
Lilli Maijala performs primarily on a 1870 viola by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, kindly on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and also plays a baroque viola.