International organ virtuoso Jan Lehtola is one the most successful and progressive Finnish organists of his generation. He has appeared with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Lahti Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestras and the St. Michel Strings. He has performed at many international festivals, including the Lahti Organ Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Time of Music in Viitasaari, the Tampere Biennale, Musica nova Helsinki, the Turku, Mikkeli, Mänttä and Hauho Music Festivals and the annual Festival of New Organ Music in London. He has worked with conductors including Juha Kangas, Sakari Oramo, Muhai Tang, Kent Nagano, Leif Segerstam and Osmo Vänskä, amongst others. Dr Lehtola has also given recitals in leading European concert halls such as Gewandhaus in Leipzig and cathedrals and churches such as La Trinité in Paris, Riga and Tallinn Doms, St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.
Jan Lehtola collaborates regularly with composers and has given more than 150 world and regional premieres. He has had works written for him by Harri Ahmas, Kalevi Aho, Atso Almila, Thierry Escaich, Naji Hakim, Paavo Heininen, Carita Holmström, Juha T. Koskinen, Olli Kortekangas, Juha Leinonen, Jouko and Jyrki Linjama, Jukka Linkola, Paola Livorsi, Pehr Henrik Nordgren, Axel Ruoff, Martin Stacey and Riikka Talvitie. In 2003 he organised the first International Naji Hakim Festival in Helsinki. Lehtola is the artistic director of the Organo Novo Festival in Helsinki and he was the chairman of the Finnish Organum Society 2009–2014.
Lehtola has recorded for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) and can be heard on more than thirty commercial recordings (on the Bis, Alba, Ondine, Jubal, IFO and Fuga labels) in repertoire including works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Naji Hakim, Paavo Heininen, Jouko Linjama, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Oskar Merikanto, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Camille Saint-Saëns, Robert Schumann and Charles-Marie Widor.
Jan Lehtola studied the organ in Helsinki (with Olli Porthan and Kari Jussila), Amsterdam (with Jacques van Oortrmerssen and Jean Boyer), Stuttgart (with Ludger Lohmann), Lyon (with Louis Robilliard) and Paris (with Naji Hakim). He graduated from the Church Music Department of the Sibelius Academy, gaining his diploma with distinction in 1998. In 2000 he gave his Sibelius Academy debut recital in Kallio Church, Helsinki, and in 2005 received a Doctorate for his dissertation on Oskar Merikanto as a transmitter of European influences to Finland. Jan Lehtola is a Lecturer in Organ Music in the Sibelius Academy. He is also active as a lecturer and a teacher of masterclasses.
For further information, please visit www.janlehtola.com
Petri Komulainen (horn) graduated from the Helsinki Conservatory in 1998 and continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy with Timo Ronkainen (principal horn of the Helsinki Philharmonic), completing his diploma in 2003 with the highest possible grade. From 1998 until 2000 Komulainen studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany with Bruno Schneider, completing his diploma in summer 2000. Komulainen has studied natural horn with Thomas Müller in Basel. He is currently an associate principal horn of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and a lecturer of wind orchestra conducting at the Sibelius Academy.
In 2001 Komulainen entered the wind orchestra conducting class at the Sibelius Academy. He gave his diploma concert with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in August 2005. Beginning in 2004, he also studied in the legendary symphony orchestra conducting class with Leif Segerstam, completing his studies 2007. Komulainen gave his orchestral conducting diploma concert with the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra in February 2007, receiving the highest possible marks. Komulainen won the Finnish National Wind Competition in Lahti in 1997. In November 2006 he won Third Prize at the International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition. During 2005-2013 Komulainen was appointed principal conductor of the Polytechnic Orchestra in Espoo, Finland.
Since 2013 he has been the artistic director of the Zagros Ensemble in Helsinki.
