Jaani Helander
Cello/Finland
Member of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and a faculty member at the Sibelius Academy, Jaani is an active and passionate soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Graduate of the Sibelius Academy in 2013, he has been a laureate of many competitions: in 2010 he was the first prize winner in the string competition at the ISA-festival in Austria and a second prize winner in the Turku National Cello Competition in Finland. He has been a soloist with many orchestras in Finland and in Austria with the Spirit of Europe. In 2013, he gave the Finnish premiere of Uljas Pulkkis’s “Dragonfly”concerto with the Nya Tidens Ensemble. Jaani has studied with Prof. Martti Rousi in Finland, Prof. Christoph Richter in Essen, Germany, and Prof. Natalia Gutman in Florence, Italy. Chamber music is Jaani’s true passion and he has performed at several festivals in Finland and abroad, in the USA and Greece, among others. He joined iPalpiti in 2016 as an “emergency” cellist, after being recommended by iPalpiti’s Finnish violinist Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä; “plucked” from his vacation in Zagreb, arriving on a day’s notice, Jaani was an instant, perfect fit. He and Kreeta-Julia launched the Helsinki Chamber Music Festival with its first season July 2017. Jaani Helander plays a Vincenzo Postiglione cello (1914), on loan to him from the Finnish-Swedish Instrument Foundation.