Artistic Director

Esa Heikkilä, a conductor and violinist from Lahti, has been in charge of the artistic side of the Riihimäki Summer Concert Series since 2008, and his efforts will ensure that the 2012 concert programme maintains the same high quality as before.

 Esa Heikkilä is the Artistic Director of both the Lohja City Orchestra and the Vivo Symphony Orchestra. He was previously Artistic Director of the Joensuu City Orchestra. In addition, he works as a lecturer in orchestral and chamber music at Lahti University of Applied Sciences.

Heikkilä began studying conducting with Osmo Vänskä and gained his conducting diploma from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under the tutelage of Leif Segerstam. Esa Heikkilä began his musical career as a violinist with Finland’s most illustrious orchestras. He has performed with chamber ensembles at numerous festivals.

Heikkilä appears as a guest conductor with orchestras in Finland and abroad. He has conducted the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra of Northern Ireland and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Other notable orchestras where he has appeared as a guest conductor include the Minnesota Orchestra, the German Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate, the Philharmonie Südwestphalen and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie in Germany as well as the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark.

Heikkilä has made recordings with a number of orchestras in Finland and abroad that have been released on labels including Naxos and BIS.

In 2009, the Arts Council of Häme awarded Esa Heikkilä its annual Kulttuuriteko award for his influential work as an innovative music educator over many years.