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	News Items Nobel Prize Celebration features Elina Vähälä. See and hear this award-winning violinist perform for a world-wide audience at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies, broadcast live on CNN. Press Kit Tour Programs Media "The fluent, stylish performance by the gifted Finnish violinist Elina Vahala, in her Chicago debut, revealed a musician whose brilliant technique is matched by abundant spirit, sensitivity and imagination" Chicago Tribune "Vähälä... gave a fine performance of the Mozart concerto... an elegant, modern rendering, and clean technique and keen musicianship marked her playing." [Mozart: Violin concerto No.5] Seattle Post Intelligencer "a thoughtful musician who has all the technical accomplishment and confidence she needs to project her thoughts. Her intonation is sure and her tone fine, perfectly formed." New York Times "Vähälä's viscerally affecting approach united musical depth and technical finesse. Britten's solo lines use percussive attacks as much as drawn-out phrases, and hers were piercing.... spellbinding" [Britten Violin Concerto] The Oregonian "Vähälä was clearly the evening's star and the Schnittke her showpiece.... a vividly athletic performance that managed to appear untamed but was, in fact, perfectly in control. [Schnittke: Quasi una sonata] Los Angeles Times "In her highly musical performance of the Brahms’s D minor sonata her delicacy of sound and the rhythm in the third movement was marvelous, as was the drive in the finale. She breathed each movement, and even the whole sonata, as one." New York Times “I was bowled over by the playing of the young Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä. From the very opening, the breathtaking finesse of her playing was matched with a great depth of feeling, the combination of which communicated the essence of Sibelius's concerto. The orchestra must have been inspired by their wonderful soloist, since their accompaniment was first class. By any measure, this was a remarkable performance.” [LSSO, Barbican Hall] MusicOMH.com "Vähälä navigated expertly through the mercurial waters of this treacherous piece." [Britten Concerto] Oregon Music News Press Kit Critical Acclaim Press Photos Tour Programs Concerto Repertoire List [PDF] Concerto Repertoire Elina Vähälä website Media Brahms Violin Concerto Fantasy return to top			Elina Vähälä, violin First prize winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, Elina Vähälä performs on the Stradivarius violin (from 1678) generously loaned by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Recent highlights include appearances with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo, Colorado Symphony conducted by Peter Oundjian, Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela with Christian Vasquez, with the English Chamber Orchestra in France, and the closing concert of the 2009/2010 Oregon Symphony season, with conductor Carlos Kalmar, during which she gave a "spellbinding" performance of the Britten Violin Concerto. And she performed at the ceremonies for Martti Ahtisaari's Nobel Peace Prize award, for which the live television broadcast was distributed to 300 million households in 100 countries. Vähälä has recently released a new Haydn Concerto CD, on which she appears as soloist and as director of Virtuosi di Kuhmo (Virtuosi Finlandia). Her busy recital schedule has included engagements in Washington D.C. and San Antonio, and performances at the Naantali Music Festival in Finland, Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia, MIAGI festival in South Africa and on a music cruise of the English Chamber Orchestra in France. Elina Vähälä has performed with orchestras such as the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, the Northwest Chamber orchestra in Seattle and with the legendary English Chamber Orchestra in several occasions, in London, Finland, Greece, Turkey and South Africa. She has worked among others with conductors Giordano Bellincampi, Ralf Gothoni, Juha Kangas, Sakari Oramo, John Storgårds, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Joseph Swensen and Osmo Vänskä. Elina Vähälä has been a guest artist at several festivals in Finland, Europe, the US, Asia and Africa; among them the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Helsinki Festival, Naantali, Turku, Oulu and Korsholm music festivals, La Roque d’Antheron festival and Pablo Casals festivals in Prades and Paris, Spoleto USA, El Paso and Gilmore festivals, the Forbidden City Music Festival in Beijing and the International Classical Music Festival in South Africa. In 1999 Ms. Vähälä gave her critically acclaimed New York recital debut. She has also appeared in chamber concerts at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall following which she performed for the first time in the series of the Boston Chamber Music Society. Born in the United States and raised in Finland, violinist Elina Vähälä made her concerto debut at the age of 12 with the Sinfonia Lahti. In 1993- 1994 she was chosen to carry the title "the Young Master Soloist" of the Sinfonia Lahti, and since then Vähälä has performed regularly with this Gramophone Award winning orchestra. She also performed with other major orchestras around her home country; the Helsinki, Turku and Tampere Philharmonic orchestras, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Ostrobotnian Chamber Orchestra and the Virtuosi di Kuhmo chamber orchestra.