Joona Uusitalo

Biography

Joona Uusitalo started playing piano at the age of five in Suzuki School. Later he studied with Mikko Haapaniemi and now he is studying in Sibelius Academy with Erik T. Tawaststjerna and Matti Raekallio. Joona Uusitalo has played Grieg's Piano Concerto and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 with orchestra and he has participated in master classes of Jussi Siirala, Teppo Koivisto and Robert Levin. Joona has played piano music of Sibelius in Ainola and he has also worked as a rehearsal accompanist with Olli Mustonen. He served his military service in The Guards Band of Finland where he participated in many chamber music video productions. In 2018 Joona recieved third prize in Young artist -category of International Krogulski Piano Competition in Poland and in 2021 he was among the 20 finalists of The Canada International piano competition. In the Nordic International piano competition 2021 Joona won the third prize and the special prizes "Best nordic participant" and "Best performance of a nordic work". Besides classical music Joona is also interested in jazz music and he has appeared as a jazz pianist in several occasions.