The Transcendental

Elina Vähälä’s 2022/23 season sees her debut at the Adelaide Festival. Born in the US and raised in Finland, she debuted with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra at twelve years old, since when her international career has won press accolades and praise from audiences and musicians alike. Elina Vähälä appears regularly with the key Finnish orchestras, and is guest performer with countless high-profile orchestras. With a touring schedule covering China, Korea, Japan, Northern Europe, and the Americas, she enjoys fruitful working relationships with leading conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Carlos Kalmar, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Okko Kamu, Jakub Hrůša, Thierry Fischer, Sakari Oramo. A versatile soloist with a wide stylistic repertoire, she has given world premieres of Sallinen’s Chamber Concerto and Curtis-Smith’s Double Concerto. Elina Vähälä performs with a 1780 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.

Imaginative and versatile Finnish virtuoso Paavali Jumppanen has established himself as a dynamic musician with a remarkable profile internationally as solo recitalist, orchestral collaborator, recording artist, artistic director, and frequent performer of contemporary and avant-garde music. Performing extensively in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and Australia and commissioning and collaborating closely with such composers as Boulez, Murail, Dutilleux, Penderecki, as well as many Finnish composers, Mr Jumppanen’s expanding discography includes “the best recorded disc of Boulez’s piano music so far” (The Guardian) and the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas (on Ondine).      

As a dedicated curator of music, Paavali Jumppanen is a co-founder and the lead-curator of the Väyläfestival, a wide-ranging arts festival at venues along the shores of the Torne River in northern Scandinavia; from 2015 to 2021, Mr. also Jumppanen held the position of Artistic Director for the renowned international PianoEspoo Festival, in Finland. In 2022 he moved with his family to Melbourne to assume the duties of Artistic Director to the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).

Konstantin Shamray is an exhilarating performer with faultless technique and fearless command of the piano. Based in Australia, he performs on an international level with the world’s leading orchestras and concert presenters. Recent and future highlights include engagements with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. Konstantin performs each season with the Adelaide Symphony who he enjoys a special relationship with. Chamber music plays a strong role in Konstantin’s musical career and he is a regular on the stages of the Melbourne Recital Centre, UKARIA Cultural Centre, with Musica Viva and looks forward to returning to the Adelaide Festival.