Agnieszka Kotulska-Rahunen - Cello

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Polish cellist Agnieszka Kotulska-Rahunen began her musical education at the age of 7 in the "Fryderyk Chopin" Music School in Bytom. In 2005 she graduated, with the highest grades, from the Hochschule für Musik ‘Franz Liszt’, where she studied under the guidance of Prof. Brunhard Böhme. She perfected her skills with Finnish cellist Erkki Lahesmaa during her post-graduate studies at the Turku Music Academy. As a cellist and chamber musician she has also attended several Master courses held by outstanding artists such as prof. Eberhard Finke, prof. Thomas Zehetmair, prof. Norbert Brainin and Tim Vogler.

 

Kotulska-Rahunen's career started when she débuted, at the age of 18, with the Polish Youth Symphony Orchestra playing the Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto. She has succesfully participated in many international competitions and is laureate XXV J.S. Bach Competition in Zielona Góra, Poland, among others. She has received the Swiss "International Zürich Masterclasses" scholarship three times. In Finland, which has become her second home, she has received grants from the Arts Council of Finland, the Arts Council of Satakunta, the Finnish Arts Promotion Center and the LUSES-foundation among others. During the years 2010-2012 Kotulska-Rahunen played a modern cello built by Jaakko Mäkelä which was on loan to her from the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

 

Agnieszka demonstrated an enormous passion for chamber musicearly on in her studies. As a member of Aurora String Quartet (Weimar) and the accomplished contemporary music ensemble ‘Via Nova’ she performed regularly in concert halls and festivals all over Europe – in Berlin, Helsinki, Krakow, Leipzig, Verona and Wien among others. At the age of 22 she recorded her first CD "Zwischen Macht und Freiheit- Neue Musik in der DDR” with the Aurora String Quartet. She has also made recordings for the German broadcasting companies - MDR and Deutschland Radio Berlin among others.

 

Kotulska-Rahunen has also worked in several different orchestras in Europe - Philharmonische Orchester Erfurt (Germany), Jenaer Philharmonie (Germany) and Filharmonia Opolska (Poland). In 2006-2007 she was invited to work as Principal cellist of Pori Sinfonietta (Finland) and during that time she performed with esteemed conductors such as Leif Segerstam, Jorma Panula, Patrick Gallois, Petri Sakari and Dima Slobodeniuk.

 

Nowadays Agnieszka works as a freelance cellist in different chamber music and multi-arts projects.

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Kimmo Rahunen - Guitar

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Kimmo Rahunen started playing guitar at the age of 9 at the Savonlinna Music school. From 1996 to 2000 he studied as a student of Timo Korhonen and Ismo Eskelinen at the Turku Music Academy. He continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Jukka Savijoki. In 2004 he completed his diploma in guitar, attaining the highest grades and received his Master's Degree. Rahunen has also undertaken postgraduate studies in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Franz Liszt” Weimar with Prof. Thomas Müller-Pering and Prof. Monika Rost. He has participated in several Masterclasses held by some of the worlds most well known guitarists like Oscar Ghiglia, Alvaro Pierri and Zoran Dukic.

 

Rahunen has been very succesful in many international guitar competitions and is the winner of the 6th Nordic Jyväskylä Guitar Competition of 2005. Since then he has performed as a soloist with several Finnish orchestras - Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, Pori Sinfonietta and Savonlinna Orchestra among others. He was awarded the "Diploma di Merito" twice during Masterclasses at ”Academia Musicale Chigiana” in Siena, Italy. Rahunen has also received artistic grants from the Arts Council of Finland, the Arts Council of Central Finland, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the LUSES-foundation among others.

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An important part of Rahunen's artistic activities is his co-operation with Finnish composers, this has led to the premiere of works by Pertti Jalava, Maria Kallionpää, Juha Leinonen, Kai Nieminen and Tomi Räisänen among others. In 2010 composer Pertti Jalavas 50th Anniversary Concert was broadcast on Finnish Radio YLE1, Rondo Classic and New York Classical Radio. The same program was later recorded and released on CD by Acte Prealable. Since 2006 Rahunen has also work as a producer of artistic projects. He was the first classical guitarist ever in Finland to be chosen to work as Regional Artist-in-residence for the Arts Council of Satakunta. Over the two year period 2006-2008 Rahunen worked as artist and producer on several multi-arts projects. One major project as a producer, was a video-art concert called "IRKI- Three Sound Visions", which was part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture Year 2011 in Turku, Finland.

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Nowadays Kimmo works as a freelance guitarist and producer in different chamber music and multi-arts projects.

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