Sini Simonen

Violin

The Finnish violinist Sini Simonen leads an active career as a chamber musician and soloist. She is the leader of the award-winning Castalian String Quartet, and the violinist of Calvino Piano Trio. She is also a member of the renowned Danish chamber group Esbjerg Ensemble, comprising of a string quartet, wind quintet and percussion.

She has won top prizes in several major international violin competitions including the Lipizer, Flesch, Cremona and Sibelius violin competitions. She has also won prizes in the Lyon, Banff and ARD chamber music competitions.

Sini studied in Sibelius Academy, Musikhochschule Hannover and Musik-Akademie Basel with among others Lara Lev and Rainer Schmidt. Masterclasses with Ferenc Rados, Gerhard Schulz, Gyorgy Pauk and Andras Schiff were particularly important artistic impulses.

She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Her cd recordings as a soloist include Bach’s double violin concerto with Helsinki Strings (Warner) and Vivaldi’s concerto for 3 violins with Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (tacet).

Sini plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin from 1760 on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation.