Biography
Sonja Korkeala was born in Finland. She is a violinist, professor for violin at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich", Primaria of the "Rodin-Quartett" and artistic director of the "Kimito Island Music Festival".
She studied at the "Sibelius Academy" in Helsinki with Ari Angervo and Prof. Tuomas Haapanen and at the "Liszt Academy" in Budapest with Maria Vermes.
Sonja Korkeala continued her studies with Prof. Ana Chumachenco at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich", where she finished her studies with the masterclass degree.
Sonja Korkeala won several prizes at Finish and international competitions, among others at "Concertino Praha" 1984, 1985 in Kuopio (Finland), 1988 in Gorizia (Italy) and 1991 at the "Konzertgesellschaft" in Munich.
Since 1993 Sonja Korkeala is the Primaria of the Rodin-String quartet, which has its own concert series in the Max-Joseph-Saal at the Munich Residenz since 1997. The Rodin-Quartett recorded many CDs with the Label "amati", among others the complete works for string quartet by Franz, Vinzenz and Ignaz Lachner as first recording, works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. Sonja Korkeala performed at numerous festivals, e.g. "Kuhmo Chambermusic Festival", "Savonlinna Opera Festival", "Amiata Piano Festival" and others more.
Since 2007 Sonja Korkeala is artistic director of the "Kimito Island Music Festival", in cooperation with her twin sister Katinka, who founded the festival in 1999. The weeklong festival is held annually on Kimito Island in mid-July. Among other performances, the festival annually features a premiere of a piece commissioned for the event by Finnish composers. Commissioned pieces have included works by Aulis Sallinen, Kalevi Aho, Jouni Kaipainen and Einojuhani Rautavaara.
http://www.kimitomusicfestival.fi/music-festival
Sonja Korkeala is performing with many musicians, among others András Adorján, Adrian Brendel, Eduard Brunner, Ana Chumachenco, Christoph Hartmann, Helena Juntunen, Sharon Kam, Radu Lupu, Siegfried Palm, Alfredo Perl, Christoph Richter, Guido Schiefen, Hariolf Schlichtig, Ingolf Turban, Jörg Widmann, Wen-Sinn Yang, Marko Ylönen, Wen Xiao Zheng.
Since 1988 Sonja Korkeala teaches violin. In 1994 she became assistant teacher of Prof. Ana Chumchenco at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich", then since 2000 she has taught her own class at the same institute. Since 2011 she is professor at the "University of Music and Performing Arts Munich". She made a name for herself as teacher of highly giftet young violinists. Her pupils included Julia Fischer, Arabella Steinbacher, Lena Neudauer, Mariella Haubs, Daniel Röhn, Veronika Eberle and many others.