Ilona Jokinen
Encyclopedia
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
opera singer. She began her vocal studies in Lahti
Lahti
Lahti is a city and municipality in Finland.Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region. It is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about north-east of the capital Helsinki...
in 1997 as a pupil of Leena Pulkki and was a pupil of Ritva Auvinen at the Helsinki Polytechnic (Stadia) from 2001 until December 2005 after which she received her Bachelor's Degree as Singing Teacher. She also took the Sibelius Academy
Sibelius Academy
The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...
's opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
training programme from 2004, continuing with Ritva Auvinen, and has studied Lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
with Pirkko Tornqvist-Paakkanen, Heikki Pellinen, Ilmo Ranta and others.
In 2004 she was chosen for the sponsorship programme run jointly by the Sibelius Academy and TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera AB is the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland. The company has operations in other countries in Northern, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Spain, with a total of 150 million mobile customers...
Finland; this continued until 2007. In summer 2005 Ilona Jokinen won the third prize in the national Merikanto Singing Competition at the Art Centre Salmela
Art Centre Salmela
Art Centre Salmela is an art centre in Mäntyharju, Finland. It produces every year a multicultural program of art exhibitions, concerts and lectures. It also organizes the Merikanto Singing Competition every fourth year. It is included to Finland Festivals as one of the biggest cultural festivals...
, having been one of the finalists in the Timo Mustakallio Competition the previous year and taken the first prize in the national class of the Pentti Koskimies Lied Competition with pianist Asta Lötjönen in 2003.
Among the roles in Ilona Jokinen's repertoire are Susanna (Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
), Kassandra (The Trojan Women by Jani Sivén), Amahl (Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors) and Serpina (Pergolesi's La serva padrona). Engagements in past seasons included a recital in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
in December 2005 and Savonlinna Opera Festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna , built in 1475...
.
In 2006 Ilona Jokinen debuted at the Savolinna Opera Festival where she played the Young Shepherd in Wagner's Tannhauser. During the Summer of 2007 she appeared in the new opera "Daddy's Girl" by Olli Kortekangas at the Savolinna Opera Festival playing the part of the mentally disturbed daughter. In autumn of 2007 she will debut at the Finnish Opera in the new Carmen production in which she will play "Frasquita".