Markku Luolajan-Mikkola – Musician

Contact

Markku

+358 40 7588185

lumi.strings@gmail.com

Links

Phantasm viol consort

Lu-Mi Strings instruments

Events

October 2025

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Bio

Markku Luolajan-Mikkola is one of the foremost performers, educators, organizers, and innovators on the Finnish early-music scene. A versatile interpreter on the viols and historical cellos, he has appeared in recitals and chamber ensembles since the 1990s. Thanks to his initiative, much of the repertoire he performs—spanning from the 16th century to the present day—received its first performance in Finland. Luolajan-Mikkola has consistently championed the idea that the future of historical instruments is not confined to the music of past centuries: they can also deepen our understanding of our own time and revitalize the expressive potential of early instruments. Many of the numerous new works he has premiered were personally commissioned by him.

Over the course of his career, Luolajan-Mikkola has given more than 1,500 concerts across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. His projects have often combined vision with scale. In 2015–2017, he carried out two major undertakings: he completed the ambitious Peregrina†io tour, performing Bach’s complete cello suites and his own transcriptions of the violin sonatas and partitas in every medieval stone church in Finland, and appeared in the Sibelius Academy’s distinguished Soiva Akatemia series, presenting five concerts devoted to the music of Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray. Earlier, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) recognized his concert series Gambaa!—a celebration of French Baroque repertoire—with its Musical Act of the Year Award (2003). Most recently, during the 2023–2024 season, he created the Retro-Futuro concert series in Helsinki, a project that both celebrated his artistic journey to date and set out his vision for the future of historical instruments in contemporary culture.

Luolajan-Mikkola has recorded more than 60 albums of solo and chamber works, many representing world premieres. These recordings have earned him a Janne Award, a special Yle prize, a Classical Emma Award (2007), and a “Best Record of the Year” citation from Helsingin Sanomat. He is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed viol consort Phantasm, whose recordings have garnered three Gramophone Awards (1996, 2004, 2017), a Diapason d’Or de l’année (2017), Limelight Magazine’s Best Chamber Music CD (2015), and numerous other accolades, including multiple Gramophone Editor’s Choices and BBC Music Magazine Record of the Month honors.

In 2010, Luolajan-Mikkola founded Finland’s leading early-music event, the BRQ Vantaa Festival, serving as Artistic Director until 2025. Under his leadership, BRQ developed into one of Northern Europe’s most innovative and internationally respected early-music festivals. Its programming, which paired historically informed performance with fresh artistic perspectives, became a hallmark of his vision. He championed established masters alongside emerging talents, spotlighted rare repertoire in dialogue with well-known works, and encouraged bold cross-disciplinary projects. His curatorship enriched Finland’s cultural life and attracted interest from musicians worldwide.

As Artistic Leader of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra from 2009 to 2013, Luolajan-Mikkola was a pioneer who reshaped the ensemble’s artistic identity. He dramatically expanded its concert activity, introduced contemporary works written for period instruments, and reimagined concert formats with initiatives such as intimate “concerts at home” and performances in alternative venues. These innovations not only broadened the scope of early-music performance in Finland but also inspired a younger generation of ensembles and musicians to follow his example.

His vision extended beyond performance and education into instrument making. In 2002, he founded Lu-Mi Strings, a company based in Beijing producing high-quality viols and Baroque string instruments crafted in the European tradition. Since its founding, Lu-Mi has delivered more than 2,000 instruments worldwide, many of them played by leading professional musicians. Through this initiative, he made historically informed performance more accessible across the globe and contributed directly to the revival and sustainability of early-instrument culture.

Equally influential as a pedagogue, Luolajan-Mikkola taught modern and historical cellos as well as viols at the Sibelius Academy from 1976 to 2025, training many of Finland’s leading musicians. His long teaching career helped establish the Academy as one of Europe’s foremost centers for historical performance. His students now hold prominent positions in ensembles, festivals, and conservatories across Europe and beyond, extending his artistic legacy to new generations.

From 2005 to 2015, Luolajan-Mikkola was an Honorary Member of the Senior Common Room at Magdalen College, Oxford—a mark of distinction within one of the world’s most prestigious universities, with its centuries-old musical traditions. His association with Oxford underscored his international stature and strengthened his ties to the wider European early-music community.

Luolajan-Mikkola graduated in modern cello from the Sibelius Academy in 1983 and went on to earn postgraduate diplomas in both viola da gamba and Baroque cello at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in 1992.

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konserttisarja 2023-2024

I have been performing concerts in some form since my student days, half a century ago. Initially, my instrument was the cello, but in the early 1990s I switched to period instruments, and my career as a performing and recording artist truly began to take off. The Retrospect & Futurospect concert series represents a culmination of my musical career and artistic goals in many ways: it looks back at the works I have performed over the past fifty years, while also opening up various perspectives for the future through experimental use of instruments and arrangements, as well as new music composed for period instruments. Visual artists have traditionally organized retrospective exhibitions. To my knowledge, this is the first concert series of its kind.

Bach Addiction

As a person, I have been in many ways dependent on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. I have recorded six Bach CDs and frequently performed his music in concerts, but above all for my own pleasure. I hope that my interpretation has deepened over fifty years, and that it brings joy to listeners as well.