Mikko Kujanpää

Double bass, sub-principal

I caught the orchestral music bug in my teens, playing with the Seinäjoki Town Orchestra in the early 1990s. Playing numerous concerts ranging from the ‘Tango Market’ to opera pit band at the same desk with my teacher Mikko Rantalainen gave me a literal front-row seat to what the life of a professional musician is like. Experiences gained at summer camps and in youth orchestras weighed much in the balance when career choice time came around in upper secondary school.

Having entered the Sibelius Academy, I engaged in a lot of jazz studies on the side and explored period instruments too: I even studied the violone, the predecessor of the double bass, for a while.

My history with the Tapiola Sinfonietta began with a one-year locum post at the turn of the millennium. Five years down the line, I was fortunate to ace an audition for a permanent appointment.

In the past few years, my role in the workplace community has expanded. Electing me as a member of the Artistic Board is the orchestra’s way of saying that they trust my ability to maintain diversity in repertoire and to keep the continuing development of the orchestra in mind. It is also important to ensure that the music we perform reaches out to as many of the residents of Espoo as possible, whatever their background may be.

My leisure interests seem to shift periodically, but chess and astronomical photography are constants. I commute by bicycle, and through this I have discovered running as a leisure activity, and I have progressed up to running marathons.