Satu Vänskä

Born to a Finnish family in Japan, violinist Satu Vänskä has developed an international profile through her role as Principal Violin with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a position that she has held for the past twenty years. In that time Satu has both directed and performed as soloist with the ACO, an ensemble regarded as one of the greatest chamber orchestras in the world, hailed for its striking virtuosity and innovative programming.

Satu’s development of solo violin projects is reflective of her desire to continually evolve as a musician and to courageously embrace new musical challenges. She has a passion for dynamic programming that explores the link between old and new music, alongside presenting boundary-blurring cross-genre collaborations, that resonate with today’s classical music audiences.

As a soloist, here in Australia Satu enjoys performing with the country’s leading orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven Violin Concerto with Umberto Clerici) the Tasmania Symphony and West Australia Symphony Orchestras (both in a play/direct role). As a recitalist Satu performs at the most prestigious venues including Melbourne Recital Centre, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Canberra International and Adelaide Festivals. Further afield, Satu performs with the Artik Philharmonic in Norway, with London’s Aurora Orchestra (in the London season of Weimar Cabaret with the late Barry Humphries), Sinfonia Lahti and at the Festival Maribor in Slovenia

Satu is the founder, curator, front-woman, violinist and vocalist of the critically acclaimed ACO Underground, the ACO’s electro-infused, experimental spin-off project. With ACO Underground, Satu has performed collaborations with artists including Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie in venues ranging from New York’s Le Poisson Rouge to Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park, and has appeared as part of the Vivid Festival. In 2022 she formed Satu In The Beyond with Richard Tognetti and producer Paul Beard. This is a band that has evolved from ACO Underground over the years with the aim to present audiences with originally written music.

Satu took her first violin lessons at the age of three in Japan, before her family relocated to Finland when she was ten, where she continued her studies with Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy. She later studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich as a pupil of Ana Chumachenco.

Satu performs on the 1728/29 Stradivarius violin on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.