Sibbe Live!: Reminiscence
Laura Martin, cello
Per Björkling, double bass
Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Mikhail Boukinik, Osvaldo Golijov, Gavin Bryars, Gioachino Rossini
Laura Martin is a very versatile musician. In addition to her passion for the classical music repertoire she always had a strong interest in art in general and likes to experiment and see how they can interact and enrich each other to deliver a specific message. She likes to think of herself as a multi-faceted artist, on one side the classical cellist, and on the other side the artist working with different art forms and reflecting on society. From Concert-exhibitions to improvised performances with dancers, Laura’s latest performance mixing different art fields was “The Taste of Remembrance”, as part of the Helsinki Butoh Festival in November 2020.
Laura Martin (1992) is one of the rare musicians to have built her own instrument. She was then 17, and this cello became her musical partner for several years. This unforgettable process opened to her the universe of sound-making from its deepest origin. Originally from Paris, Laura did her Bachelor studies in Belgium at the Brussels’ Royal Conservatory, in the class of Marie Hallynck, and then graduated from her Master at the Sibelius Academy in 2018 where she studied with Martti Rousi. She has then been asked to be Cello Assistant in the class of Martti Rousi.
Laura has participated in various projects and masterclasses such as the Festival Pablo Casals, the Villecroze Academy, the Cello Biennale of Amsterdam (2016), the 9th Osaka chamber music competition, and the Creative Dialogue IX with the composer Kaija Saariaho and the cellist Anssi Karttunen. Laura Martin has also collaborated with artists like the violinist Mihaela Martin, the pianists Kyoko Ashimoto, Martti Rautio, Valeria Resjan, Irina Zahharenkova, and the soprano coloratura Piia Komsi.
In the summer of 2018, she was invited to be a Professional Performance Artist at the Boston Music Institute’s 12 Hour Masterclasses with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and participated in the music festival of Santander in Spain. More recently, in February 2019 she created CelloFest.fi with Matti Rousi, the first-ever International Cello Festival in Finland.
Based in Helsinki, Laura is the principal cellist of the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra and regularly works with various orchestras such as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Orchestra, the Finnish National Opera and Ballet and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, in addition to her activity as a chamber musician.
Double bassist Per Björkling earned his Master of Music from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2015. After working for two years as a freelance musician, he entered the Performer Diploma program at the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music (JSOM) with an “Artistic Excellence Award”. In 2018, he became the third ever double bassist to join Jacob’s school of Music’s “Artist Diploma” program. He pursued the program under the tutelage of Professor Kurt Muroki.
Per has been awarded four times with the annual Royal Swedish Academy of Music scholarship for studying abroad, as well as the Swedish Freemasons’ “Great String Musician Scholarship”. In 2015, he was honored with two notable performance opportunities. He won the Uppsala Chamber Music Society’s annual scholarship and performed a recital as a part of their season program that year. He then performed G. Bottesini’s “Concerto for double bass and string orchestra” at the concert series “Musik på slottet” after being awarded with their annual soloist prize.
As a professional musician, Per has worked in most of the orchestras and ensembles in his home country, Sweden, including: the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra where he served as a temporary section bass player during its 2014-2015 season; the Swedish Radio Orchestra; Musica Vitae; Gävle Symphony Orchestra; and Malmö Symphony Orchestra. Most notably, he has made guest appearances as principal double bassist for the Helsingborg
Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish National Symphony Orchestra in Gothenburg and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, UK. Since December 2020, Per is a tenured member of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland.