Soile Isokoski and Marita Viitasalo
7:30 pm Thursday, April 28, 2005

Soile Isokoski is currently one of the finest singers performing her repertoire and she is a regular guest on all the most renowned stages in the world. In the fall of 2003 she returns to the Metropolitan Opera in New York for a new production of La Juive.

A native of Finland, Soile Isokoski graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and made her concert debut there in 1986. In 1987 Ms. Isokoski won 2nd prize in the BBC Singer of the World Competition and subsequently won 1st prize in the Elly Ameling and Tokyo International Singing Competitions. After her opera debut in the role of Mimí in La Bohème at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki she went on to capture audiences and critics in the opera houses of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, London, Milan and Paris and also at the festivals in Salzburg, Savonlinna, Edinburgh and Orange.

Ms. Isokoski continues to work together with many renowned conductors including Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Seiji Ozawa, John Elliot Gardiner, Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Bernhard Haitink and Riccardo Muti. She has a wide-ranging concert repertoire and regularly gives recitals with her permanent accompanist Marita Viitasalo. These, and other recitals, have taken her to London (Wigmore Hall), Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin (Philharmonic Hall), Munich, Vienna (Musikverein), Rome, Athens, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tokyo.

They have also recorded works by numerous Scandinavian composers as well as Schubert and Schumann. Among her recent recordings the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss in collaboration with Marek Jankowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin received the Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award, having been chosen earlier in the year as Editor's Choice - Recording of the Month in the April 2002 issue. Together with Bo Skovhus and Marita Viitasalo she has recorded Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook, a CD that has just been released (Ondine, October 2002).

In honour of her notable contribution to Finnish music Ms. Isokoski was awarded with the Pro-Finlandia medal in December 2002.

Recent Engagements:
COVENT GARDEN Meistersinger (B. Haitink), Falstaff (A.Pappano)
DRESDEN Lohengrin – MÜNCHEN Meistersinger (Peter Schneider)
KÖLN Der Rosenkavalier (G. Krämer/Ph. Auguin)
NEW YORK METROPOLITAN Le nozze di Figaro (D. Runnicles)
PARIS BASTILLE Faust, Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier (J.Conlon) – ORANGES Zauberflöte
WIEN La Juive, Otello, Turandot, Don Giovanni, Rosenkavalier, Meistersinger

Future Engagements:
DRESDEN Der Rosenkavalier (2004), Capriccio (2005), Peter Grimes (2007)
HELSINKI Der Rosenkavalier (2004)
MONTE CARLO Ariadne auf Naxos (2005)
NEW YORK (MET) La Juive (Premiere 6.11.2003); Don Giovanni; Le nozze di Figaro (2006)
PARIS BASTILLE Otello (2005)
TOKIO Le nozze di Figaro (Gastspiel der Wiener Staatsoper 2004)
WIEN Cosí fan tutte, Don Giovani, Turandot, Carmen (2004), Lohengrin (Opening Dez. 2005)

Marita Viitasalo was born in the south of Finland but upon beginning her piano studies she moved to Helsinki where she studied at the Sibelius Academy. In 1972 she received her concert diploma from this conservatorium. She completed further studies at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and in 1976 she was subsequently awarded her concert diploma after a further four years of study at the Viennese School of the Arts with Professor Dieter Weber.

Ms Viitasalo’s solo career was initiated with her winning the important Finnish Maj Lind Competition. Since this she has regularly worked with all of the main orchestras in Finland and Scandinavia. She has given concerts in Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Dusseldorf, Schleswig-Holstein and Stockholm as well as elsewhere. Her concert repertoire includes a list of works too numerous to mention. She is however particularly devoted to the impressionist composers and has furthermore earned herself a considerable reputation as a sensitive performer of Chopin, Ravel, Debussy and of course Sibelius.

In 1986 she founded the Trio Finlandia and with this group she has undertaken concert tours throughout Scandinavia and further afield to Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Russia, the U.S.A. and South-East Asia. In its programmes the trio has not only emphasised the classical piano trio repertoire but has also realized the importance of performing contemporary Finnish works outside of Finland. In 1999 they gave the debut performance of Olli Kortekangas´ composition for piano trio and orchestra Charmes which is dedicated to the group.

Since 1987 Ms Viitasalo has been the constant duo partner for the renowned Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski. Together they have given recitals all over the world and they have won over audiences in Wigmore Hall, at the Edinburgh Festival and further in Vienna, Paris, Strassbourg, Amsterdam, Rome, Munich, Athens, Moscow, St. Petersburg and many cites in Japan.

The pianist can be heard on several recordings of music by Sibelius, Debussy and Ravel. Apart from these solo CDs she has made numerous recordings with Soile Isokoski of Scandinavian works as well as songs by Schubert and Schumann. In September 2001 she will record Wolf’s Italian Songbook with Ms Isokoski and Bo Skovhus which she has already performed live in Vienna, Stockholm, Barcelona, Brussels and the Opera in Frankfurt.

Recent projects include piano recitals in Tokyo and Nagano. Furthermore she appeared with Ms Isokoski in Bonn, Toulouse, Lucerne, Vienna, at the Chamber Music Festival in Kuhmo, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and the Savonlinna Opera Festival. She also performed with Bo Skovhus in the Finnish music Festivals of Turku, Lohja and Kangasniemi in the summer of 2002.

Apart from her concert performing Marita Viitasalo is also professor for piano at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and since 1989 she has been the Artistic Director of the Espoo Piano Festival.