Olli Leppäniemi

Clarinet, principal

I began playing the clarinet at the Lappeenranta Music Institute at the age of nine. I chose the clarinet after listening to records at home and finding myself liking the sound of the instrument. I am still very fond of the sound and pay a lot of attention to sound quality when I play. I aim for a singing, soft, dark sound and seek to change my tone according to the character of the music. It may be hard to believe that as a child I wanted to grow up to be a farmer. That pursuit was pretty much doomed because of the tiny garden we had in our terraced house.

I began to think of studying the clarinet professionally in upper secondary school, having played with the Vivo Youth Symphony Orchestra and having attended a masterclass at the Crusell Week. I put in many hours of practice to get into the Sibelius Academy after my first attempt had failed. I have found since then that small adversities can provide motivation for trying harder.

I joined the Tapiola Sinfonietta as Principal Clarinet at the start of 2019. Before that, I had played with the Turku Philharmonic, the Lahti Sinfonia, the Bergen Philharmonic and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

There is practically nothing about my job in the Tapiola Sinfonietta that I do not enjoy. My coworkers are incredibly great people, and the concert programmes are inventive and well designed. I also like that we play chamber music in smaller ensembles. This chamber music aspect translates into our performances as a full orchestra, which is also excellent.

My favourite musical works are the masterpieces for clarinet written by Mozart, Brahms and Weber. They show that the composers had great confidence in and appreciation for the musicians for whom they wrote those works.

I spend my free time mostly with my wife and my three children. I like to work in the garden, because I like seeing the results of my work. In music, practising does not yield similarly concrete results.