Janne Ovaskainen

Trumpet, sub-principal

I grew up with music. My father was a music teacher and conducted a wind band in my native town of Rovaniemi. When I was six years old, we spent a year on the coast of the Arctic Ocean in Norway. I heard a local wind band there and was inspired to try the trumpet. My parents promised me that I could begin learning the alto horn if I could get a sound from that instrument – and I did. I swapped the alto horn for trumpet at the age of eight when I entered the Lapland Music Institute and joined the Rovaniemi Rural Parish Wind Band. At this point, the piano was still my main instrument. After upper secondary school, I was accepted for the Department of Music Education at the Sibelius Academy; I completed my M.Mus. degree in 2001.

I was meant to become a music teacher, but instead I became an orchestra musician. A vacancy opened up in the Tapiola Sinfonietta in 2000, just as I was finishing my studies, and I was very happy to get the job. I have played here for my entire career as an orchestra musician except for my very first year in the profession, when I was with the Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera.

What I enjoy particularly about my job is playing music. I like playing music that is beautiful and melodic. Rhythm music is also important to me, and in my free time I enjoy listening to Latin, jazz or groove music. I also play ice hockey, enjoy working with wood at the summer cottage and doing things with my family. I also have a pastime that is rather more serious than a hobby: buying, selling and above all cleaning used cars.