Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä

I was born in Töölö, the only child of my violinist parents. At the time, my father also worked as a concertmaster, soloist, chamber musician and violin lecturer at the Sibelius Academy. My own career path has not fallen far from that tree. Since then, we have lived in Kirkkonummi, Porvoo and finally Paloheinä, Helsinki. Perhaps I would consider myself “from Uusimaa”.

I started playing the violin at the age of 5 at the East Helsinki Music Institute as a student of Géza Szilvay and continued to Tuomas Haapanen's class at the age of 11. I have been lucky in that playing together has been a part of my study path from the beginning. With the Helsinki Strings children's and junior orchestras, we recorded works that required long hours and toured actively. At the Sibelius Junior Academy, chamber music weekends at Kallio-Kuninkala in Järvenpää were important musical gatherings that fostered many lifelong friendships.

In 2010, I entered the Royal College of Music in London as a student of Jan Repko. From there, life took me through various phases to Vaasa, Copenhagen, Oulu, London, Oslo and other Nordic cities as a concertmaster. I spent the summers of 2014–2017 in Los Angeles as an alumnus of the iPalpiti Festival, through which I made many international contacts.

In 2017, I founded the Helsinki Chamber Music Festival with my friend – and HPO cellist – Jaani Helander, with the aim of inviting foreign musicians we knew to perform in our beautiful capital and its magnificent Art Nouveau halls.

I would most likely have stayed abroad permanently had I not met my Argentinian husband in Finland, which brought the multiculturalism I valued to my homeland.

The doors of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra opened in 2022 while I was expecting our second son. I have immensely enjoyed the fun, cheerful, active and multitalented colleagues and the chance to influence as a member of the Artistic Committee. I feel that I am in my dream job and grateful for the wonderful setting of the Musiikkitalo concert hall, as well as the opportunity to play the Michele Deconet violin owned by Pro Filharmonia.

In my free time, I enjoy nature, hiking, birds, mushroom picking and staying at the cottage. My dream for the future is to find time for my beloved childhood hobby, horses. Right now, in these busy years, my everyday life as a mother of two small boys is currently filled with rewarding orchestra work, other violin productions, concerts, teaching and looking after our old house.