Esa Heikkila - Conductor
The Finnish conductor, Esa Heikkilä, is the newly appointed Music Director of the Lohja City Orchestra alongside his currents positions as Artistic Director of Symphony Orchestra Vivo, Artistic Director of the Riihimäki Summer Concerts Festival and Senior Lecturer for Orchestra and Chamber Music at Lahti University of Applied Sciences. He has recently returned from his second visit to the Minnesota Orchestra in the USA (Pioneer Press: "....the electricity generated by Sibelius' "En Saga." Heikkila and the orchestra did splendid things with it, as icy atmospherics gave way to volcanic low brass .... "). He recently ended a most successful period as Chief Conductor of the Joensuu City Orchestra (Joensuun Kaupunginorkesteri) in Finland.
Esa Heikkilä passed his final conducting diploma concert at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, in March 2004 with the highest possible mark. He now conducts many of Finland`s major orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Turku Philharmonic, Tampere Philharmonic and Oulu Philharmonic orchestras, Sinfonia Lahti, Osthrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra, Kymi Sinfonietta, Pori Sinfonietta, Lappeenranta City Orchestra and Mikkeli City Orchestra.
Outside Finland he has made successful débuts with the Minnesota Orchestra in the USA, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz plus the Philharmonie Südwestfalen in Germany, Ulster Orchestra for the BBC in Belfast, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders and the Norrköpings Symfoniorkester in Sweden. He was immediately re-invited to the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra after making his début with them in February 2006 and by the BBC in Northern Ireland after first working there in January 2007. He returned successfully to the Minnesota Orchestra in February 2010 and has also returned to Iceland and to the Ulster Orchestra four times. He makes his debut with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra this season. Heikkilä has recorded with Sinfonia Lahti for the BIS label and his recording of Malcolm Arnold`s music with the Ulster Orchestra for the Naxos label was most favourably reviewed in The Gramophone.
One of the remarkable aspects of Esa Heikkilä´s career has been his acceptance as a mature student at the age of 37 into Leif Segerstam´s conducting class at the Sibelius Academy having earlier started his conducting studies with Osmo Vänskä. Born in 1962, his outstanding talent as a conductor was already recognised in Finland when he began his studies at this famous academy. He had earlier begun his musical career as a violinist in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra then the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra before becoming a violin section leader in Sinfonia Lahti. He has performed as a soloist with several Finnish orchestras and frequently played as a chamber musician at many festivals in Finland, also making chamber music recordings for the BIS label amongst others. His wide conducting repertoire has an emphasis on the music of Sibelius and many other Nordic composers ranging from Rautavaara, Sallinen, Aho and Pärt to Englund, Klami, Alfvén, etc., through the Russian school of composers to a central repertoire of orchestral music that also encompasses some choral, opera and ballet scores. Esa Heikkilä also includes contemporary music into his concert programmes and he conducts many first performances.
August 2010