Tero Toivonen

French horn, principal

In March 1995, I had the most enormous stroke of luck in that I auditioned successfully for the orchestra of my dreams, the Tapiola Sinfonietta. I have also played Principal Horn in other, periodically operating orchestras, such as the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the Vantaa Pops Orchestra.

I completed a doctorate in music at the DocMus unit of the Sibelius Academy of Uniarts Helsinki in 2014. Its artistic component was titled Kaanonin laitamilta [From the fringes of the canon], and the written thesis, Pitkä matka lähelle [A long journey to very close by], discusses the role of an orchestral musician in audience outreach activities. I have been Lecturer in Horn at the Sibelius Academy alongside my orchestra post since 2016.

Playing with orchestras and teaching have taken me all around the globe. I have travelled halfway around the world with the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and I have given masterclasses in numerous institutions, such as the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Danish School of Music and Tokyo University of the Arts GEIDAI.

Youth work is one of the most important components of my work as a musician. As a key person in the audience outreach work of the Tapiola Sinfonietta, I have been able to develop a solo project built around a character named ‘Doc-T’. In recent years, I have given some 100 Doc-T recitals around Finland, with a combined audience of nearly 10,000 young people.