Essi Höglund

Essi Höglund is one of the most sought-after Finnish violinists of her generation. She can regularly be heard in both solo and chamber recitals in addition to being an active orchestral musician much in demand. She has been the soloist with most of the professional Finnish orchestras, headed by the Finnish Radio Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Kymi Sinfonietta. Abroad, she has had solo engagements with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Kammerphilharmonie Bad Nauheim and others. In chamber repertoire, Essi has been heard at most of the Finnish music festivals and in many European countries, the USA and Canada. She frequently guests with major Finnish orchestras as concertmaster or section leader.

Essi studied with Merle Kaadu in Kotka, Réka Szilvay at the junior Sibelius Academy, Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet) in Vienna, Tero Latvala and Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch at the Sibelius Academy and privately with Paavo Pohjola, and attended the Violin Academy funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Winner of the second prize in the Kuopio and Jyväskylä Violin Competitions, Essi came third and took the prize for the best performance of the compulsory work in the Young Musician violin competition in Tallinn. She has worked with Nobuko Imai, Augustin Dumay, Gregor Horsch and other instrumentalists and recorded for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), the Austrian classical music channel Ö1 and Alba Records.