Sibbe Live!: Clavier Evening
14.05.2025 19:00 – 20:00
Standard price 15€ + order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Students/ pensioners/ children 12€ + order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Mirka Viitala, piano
Programme:
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
George Crumb (1929-2022)
Domenico Scarlatti ( 1685-1757)
Mirka Viitala began her career as a pianist at the age of four under her father’s guidance, studying her way through the Kuusamo College of Music and the Sibelius Academy’s Youth Department to the Sibelius Academy’s Department of Performing Arts, where she studied under Matti Raekallio and Ralf Gothon, among others. She furthered her studies under Professor Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Academy in Amsterdam and at master classes led by Murray Perahia, Liisa Pohjola, Dmitri Bashkirov and Olli Mustonen, among others.
Viitala has recorded music for YLE since 2000 and has premiered numerous works by Finnish and foreign composers such as Matthew Whittall, Pasi Lyytikäinen, Riikka Talvitie and Minna Leinonen. Recent highlights have included performing the original version of Helvi Leiviskä’s Piano Concerto (1935) with conductor Hannu Linnu and the Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Independence Day concert in 2020, performing as a soloist with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and performing Olivier Messiaen’s massive series of works ´Vingt regards sur l´enfant-Jésus´ at a concert recorded by YLE in Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo in December 2022. In 2023, Alba Records released both Viitala’s first solo album and the chamber music album ´Rebecca and Louise´. Both albums have garnered excellent reviews in Finnish and international media.
Viitala’s artistic work has been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland, the Musiikinedistämissäätiö, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, the Alfred Kordelin Foundation and the Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation. The Arts Promotion Centre has awarded Viitala one-year artist grants for 2018, 2020 and 2023.