About us

• Jouko Harjanne - trumpet

• Touko Lundell - trumpet

• Jussi Vuorinen - trombone

• Ville Hiilivirta - french horn

• Miika Jämsä - tuba

Musicians

Elisa Korhonen is a singer, musician and music pedagogue from Lieksa. Graduated a Master of Music degree in the Music Education department at the Sibelius Academy, the singer has performed in many different types of musical productions and concerts. In addition to her studies, Elisa performs and represents as a soloist in, for example, the Kuopio-based Hulluttavat party-band, the Helsinki-based Party-band EETU and the progressive heavy band Tether. In addition to singing at this year's Secret Agent 007 in Lieksa and the Bohemian Brass Queen concerts, as well as the 2025 BrassAbba concert, Elisa has also worked as a festival assistant at Lieksa's Brass Week since 2017.

Jouko Harjanne studied the trumpet with Raimo Sarmas at the Tampere Conservatoire and continued after graduating with Henri Adelbrecht and Timofei Dokshitser. Between 1978 and 1984, Harjanne was alternate lead trumpeter with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. 1984 – 2024 Harjanne served as a principal trumpet of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki.

Harjanne has played chamber music in many brass and chamber ensembles, including the Finnish Brass Ensemble and the Brass Septet Imperial.

Jouko Harjanne's international career has been enhanced by many competition successes, the most important being second place in the Prague Spring Trumpet Series in 1987, and first place in the Ellsworth Smith Trumpet Competition, organised by the International Trumpet Guild in 1990. In 1989 he was presented with the Brass Player of the Year award at the Lieksa Brass Week, Finland's most important brass event. Harjanne is now the artistic director of the festival. He has also been much in demand as a player in international brass events. In 1997 Jouko was nominated as an honorary member of the Finnish Trumpet Guild.

Harjanne's solo performances abroad have extended as far as Russia, Japan, Republic of Korea and the USA, as well as Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. He has been a jury member of the numerous international trumpet competitions for example ARD-Munich, Maurice Andre Trumpet Competition, Budapest International Trumpet Competition, Porcia, Prague Spring and naturally Lieksa Brass Week competitions.

Harjanne's career received an additional boost by his performing and recording in England with soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in December 1994, and by his performance, to great success, of Rodion Schedrin's new trumpet concertos European premiere in Moscow in autumn 1995. The professional music press has ranked Harjanne among the elite class of international soloists.

Harjanne has made over 35 (39) solo recordings. In addition to recording the standard repertoire, Harjanne has gained a reputation for the recording of what are considered the trumpet's most difficult works (e.g. the Zimmermann, Gruner, Nagao, Schedrin and Jolivet concertos). In addition to his recordings, he has performed in numerous productions for radio and TV.

Jouko Harjanne has held a number of master classes in Finland and abroad. During years 2012-2020 Harjanne was appointed as a Guest Professor of the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music. In 2012 he was nominated as a Brass Ambassador of the Lieksa city.

Jouko Harjanne plays Bach Stradivarius Bb and C trumpets.

Touko Lundell, who studied trumpet at the Tampere Conservatory, has been the principal trumpet of the Finnish National Opera Orchestra since 1985 and the Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra since 1986. He has also worked as a trumpet teacher at, among others, the Sibelius Academy and the Pirkanmaa University of Applied Sciences. He has played in many Finnish professional orchestras and performs as a soloist and chamber musician both in Finland and abroad. Lundell won the first international trumpet competition of the Lieksa Brass Week in 1999.

Jussi Vuorinen (b. 1976) is a trombonist originally from Tampere, Finland. He began playing the trombone at the age of nine. Already in his youth, performed in various jazz, reggae, and other rhythm music ensembles, as well as in musical theatre productions in Tampere.

His growing interest in orchestral music led him to Helsinki to study at the Sibelius Academy in 1994. Soon after, he began performing with several symphony orchestras across Finland.

Since 2004, Vuorinen has served as bass trombonist of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 2016 to 2022 he also held the position of co-principal trombonist.

Alongside his orchestral vacancy, rhythm music has remained an important part of his artistic career. Vuorinen composes, records, and produces music at his own studio called JV Sound Cave. His music has been featured in advertisements, YouTube productions, and in the Finnish feature film Hyväveli (2022). He has also appeared on several film soundtracks, including Sisu 2.

Vuorinen has collaborated with several notable Finnish artists, including Emilia Sisco, Paleface, and Kauko Röyhkä.

His achievements include second prize at the National Brass Competition in Lahti in 1994, as well as first prize at the International Bass Trombone Competition organized by the International Trombone Association in the United States in 2002. In 2003, Lieksa Brass Week awarded him the "Brass Player of the Year" distinction.

Ville Hiilivirta (born 1984) studied the french horn at the West Helsinki Music Institute and the Sibelius Academy under Timo Ronkainen and at the Hanover University of Music and Drama under Markus Maskuniity. He graduated with a diploma in music from the Hannover Music Academy with top honors in 2008 and from the Sibelius Academy in 2010, also with top honors.

Hiilivirta has been successful in several national and international competitions, including 2nd place at the 4th Lahti National Brass Competition in 2003, 1st place at the 7th European Horn Competition in Marl, Germany in 2006, and 1st place at the 3rd Lieksa International Horn Competition in 2010. He served as a jury member at the 4th Lieksa Horn Competition "Holger Fransman in Memoriam" in 2016. Hiilivirta has performed as a soloist with many Finnish orchestras as well as the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon). In autumn 2018, Hiilivirta and his colleagues performed Schumann's Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra for the first time in the history of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, Hiilivirta has performed, among others, in the chamber music series of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Crusell Week in Uusikaupunki, the Korsholm Music Festival, the Lieksa Brass Week, the Rauma Festivo, Musiikkia! Ruovesi Music Festival and the LuostoClassic Festival. In Germany, he has performed at the Konturen Festival in Brühl and the Erftkreis concert series near Cologne in 2018. At the Classic con brio festival in Osnabrück, Hiilivirta performed Olli Mustonen's piano sextet in 2024. Hiilivirta's regular chamber music ensembles include Duo Hiilivirta & Kärkkäinen, the Crusell Quintet of the wind principals of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Kolibri Brass ensemble.

Hiilivirta has worked as principal horn in most Finnish orchestras as well as with the Royal Swedish Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia Orchestra invited by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra invited by Pietari Inkinen, and in Germany the Bavarian and Essen State Orchestras. He has also played as principal horn in the Nordic Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian Festival Orchestra with Paavo Järvi, and the Lucerne Festival Academy Alumni Orchestra under the baton of maestro Riccardo Chailly. Hiilivirta was a member of the Tampere City Orchestra in 2008-2009. Since 2010, he has been the principal horn of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 2015-16 season, Hiilivirta was the principal horn of the Finnish National Opera. Hiilivirta is the principal horn of the chamber orchestra Avanti!. In 2027, Hiilivirta will succeed Jouko Harjanne as the artistic director of the Lieksa Brass Week.

Miika Jämsä has worked in the Guard Band since 2003, currently as a soloist. In addition to his main job, he assists in symphony orchestras and performs with several different ensembles. Jämsä has premiered tuba concertos, solo works and chamber music. He studied at the Sibelius Academy, graduating with a Master of Music in 2008. Jämsä won the Lahti National Wind Competition in tuba B-series (1997) and A-series (2000). He was among the top three tubists at the Aeolus International Competition for Wind Instruments in Düsseldorf (2007). The silver medal he achieved at the Lieksa International Tuba Competition in 2006 was turned into gold in July 2013. He has been awarded Military Musician of the Year in 2006 and Hamina Tattoo Musician of the Year in 2014.

Petri Piiparinen has been playing percussion instruments for over 28 years. He graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 2021.

As a freelance musician, Petri has played in many orchestras and ensembles during his career, such as the RSO, HKO, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Estonian Festival Orchestra, Estonian National Opera "Estonia", Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Animato Foundation Orchestra of Switzerland. He has led the Estonian Dixieland Band for over ten years and has been the drummer of the Estonian Defence Forces Big Band and the Raffaele Kohler Swing Band in Milan for many years. He has also participated in percussion courses with Peter Erskine, Dennis Chambers and Indonesian gamelan music.

Currently, Petri works as the principal percussion of the Finnish National Opera Orchestra and, from 2023, as the principal percussion of the Avanti Chamber Orchestra. He also was a band director and drummer of Estonian Dixieland Band in 2015-2025.