Minna Pensola to dazzle on violin at HIFA

 Minna Pen-sola`s violin studies began at the Helsinki Conservatory and continued at the Sibelius Acad-emy, then at the Zurich Music Acad-emy, and, after that, at the Euro-pean Chamber Music Academy (ECMA). Since winning 3rd prize at the Nordic NordSol Compe-tition in 1997, Minna Pensola has performed extensively as a chamber musician and soloist. She is a founding member of string quartet Meta4 which is the first prize winner of the Dimitri Shostak-ovich String Quartet Competition (Moscow 2004) and the Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Compe-tition (Vienna 2007). Her husband, Antti Tikkanen, is also a member of Meta4 and they had their first child in 2011.
Minna also established the PuKama Chamber Music Asso-ciation, based in the heart of Hels-inki, which organises concerts and master classes in the city. In addition to this, Minna Pensola has been Artistic Director of the Summer Sounds festival in Sysmä 2006-2012 and runs the Klasa-riklubi in Helsinki, which she founded in 2008. She also teaches at the Sibelius Academy and gives masterclasses.
Her musical mentors include Jerzy Blaszkiewicz, Leonid Mord-kovich, Kaija Saarikettu, Ana Chumachenko and Josef Rissin.
Minna Pensola plays an A. Bellosio (1770) kindly on loan from the Local Cooperative Bank of Sysmä. Minna’s performance is brought to HIFA courtesy of the Embassy of Finland and the special guest appearance by pianist Mike Del Farro is made possible by the Royal Netherlands Embassy. She will perform on Coca-Cola Day, 4 May, at 11.15 am in the NMB Bank Recital Room.