CV – Erkki Lahesmaa

Erkki Lahesmaa

Erkki Lahesmaa studied  the cello with Aldo Parisot, Zara Nelsova, Harvey Shapiro and Timo Hanhinen at the Juilliard School, the Yale University and the Turku Conservatory (Finland). He has also had extensive chamber music studies with, among others, the Juilliard- and Tokyo string quartets.

In 1990 Mr. Lahesmaa won the Juilliard competition in USA and in 1986 the second prize in the Turku cello competition in Finland.

Mr. Lahesmaa made his debut in New York in 1990 performing the Dvorak concerto at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. Since then he has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, USA, Canada, South-America and Japan. Latest appearances have been in the Warsaw Autumn-festival, Berliner Festspiele’s MaerzMusik and the Huddersfield festival in Great Britain.

Mr. Lahesmaa is also an active performer of contemporary music and several works by Finnish composers have been written and dedicated to him.

As a chamber musician, he has been a member of the Artisti del Mondo and the Coryton ensembles in USA and the Arthur-Leblanc string quartet in Canada. He is also a member of the Plus Ensemble and the Ad Libitum piano trio.

Mr. Lahesmaa has also made numerous recordings and and his CD with Plus Ensemble won the best classical album award in 2010.

Erkki Lahesmaa is senior lecturer of  cello and chamber music at the Turku Music Academy in Finland. He has been a jury member in numerous music competitions including the international Khachaturian cello competition and has been invited to give master classes, among others, in Beijing and Shanghai conservatories, Santiago de Chile, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Florence, San Sebastian, Lisbon, Glasgow, Weimar, Bremen, Warsaw, Krakow, St. Petersburg, Oslo, Reykjavik, Bergen, Kristiansand and Stavanger.

Erkki Lahesmaa is the director of  Nauvo Chamber Music Festival in Finland.

www.erkkilahesmaa.com