HAKKINEN, AAPO

Aapo Häkkinen was born in 1976 in Helsinki, where he started his musical career as a young chorister at the Helsinki Cathedral. Not much later he began to study the harpsichord with Ellina Mustonene and organ with Olli Porthan at the Sibelius Academy. Häkkinen continued his music education at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory with Bob van Asperen, from 1995 to 1998, and in Paris, where he studied with Pierre Hantaï.

Aapo Häkkinen has embarked upon an international career as a harpsichordist and organist performing in Finland and abroad. He is also a distinguished and much sought-after chamber musician and conductor, working with orchestras such as Les Talens Lyric, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Musica Aeterna Bratislava, Sibelius Academy Baroque Orchestra, and with artists such as Enrico Baiano, Monica Groop, Ilya Grubert, Ian Honeyman, Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen, María Cristina Kiehr, Anu Komsi, and Petteri Salomaa. He conducted Haydn's L'Isola Disabitata for the Finnish Chamber Opera, and Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona for the Croatian National Theatre.

Aapo Häkkinen has recorded for the labels Alba, Avie, Cantus, Deux-Elles, and Naxos, and for European radio and television companies. He teaches at the Helsinki Sibelius Academy and at international masterclasses. He is the Artistic Director of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and of the Early Music concert series at the Institut Finlandais in Paris, France.

Häkkinen won second prize of the Belgian radio and television VRT-3 at the Bruges Harpsichord Competition (1998). He was also awarded the Norddeutscher Rundfunk special prize Musikpreis 1997 for his remarkable interpretations of Italian music.

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
BACH, J.S.: Viola da Gamba Sonatas	8.570210