Elina Vähälä

Born in the United States and raised in Finland, Elina Vähälä made her orchestral debut with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at the age of twelve and was later chosen by Osmo Vänskä as the orchestra’s "Young Master Soloist." The  Chicago Tribune declared her "a fluent, stylish and gifted musician whose brilliant technique is matched by an abundant spirit, sensitivity and imagination."

Elina Vähälä appears regularly with all of the key Finnish orchestras as well being a guest of countless high-profile orchestras across the globe such as Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Dortmund Philharmoniker, Istanbul State Symphony, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, RTVE Spanish Radio Orchestra, and has toured throughout the UK, Finland, Germany, China, Korea and South America. She enjoys a fruitful working partnership with many leading conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Carlos Kalmar, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Okko Kamu, Jakub Hrůša, Thierry Fischer, Sakari Oramo, Leif Segerstam, Josep Caballé-Domenech, Alexander Liebreich and Michał Nesterowicz.
Recent seasons saw Elina Vähälä perform with the Gothenburg Symphony, Norrkoping Symphony, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava, the Helsinki Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic, Oulu Symphony Orchestra and Wroclaw Philharmonic. She also appeared at festivals in Tampere, Clandeboye, Seoul and Oulu, where she had been appointed Co-Artistic Director, together with saxophonist Jukka Perko.

Other highlights of past seasons include debuts with the Orchestre National de Lyon, Polish National Radio Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Qingdao Symphony, RTÉ National Symphony, Gävle Symphony, Shenzhen Symphony, and performances with the Finnish Radio Symphony, Lahti Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Niederrheinische Symphony, Norrlandsoperan Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and Colorado Symphony.

Elina Vähälä has given world premieres of Aulis Sallinen’s Chamber Concerto, Curtis Curtis-Smith’s Double Concerto, Jaakko Kuusisto’s Concerto, and Kalevi Aho’s Concerto No. 2, all of which were written for her, as well as the Jan Sandström’s Concerto. In addition, Elina Vähälä gave the first Nordic performance of Corigliano’s Violin Concerto The Red Violin and continues to be one of the soloists of choice for this work. Befitting her Finnish roots, she is one of very few to perform the Sibelius concerto in its early version.

In 2009, Elina Vähälä launched the Violin Academy; funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the academy is a master class based educational project for highly talented young Finnish violinists. Previously a professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany, she has been a professor at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna since September 2019. Elina Vähälä performs with a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin made in 1780.

Banner photo by Susan and Neil Silverman Photography
Photo of Elina Vähälä by Alina Simonen