Maria Ollikainen
piano
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Maria Ollikainen was born in Finland where she started studying at the Sibelius Academy when she was a child, attaining her diploma in 1995. She continued her studies in Germany, where she has lived and worked for more than 20 years. She passed her exams at the University of Music in Weimar in 2001, where she was taught by Lazar Berman. Other influential teachers included Sir András Schiff and Boris Pergamenschtschikow. She taught at the universities for music in Weimar, Lucerne and Mainz from 2001 - 2015 and has held many masterclasses. She won a special prize at the 2007 Deutsche Musikrat Competition as an instrumental accompanist. Maria Ollikainen appears regularly in concert at home and abroad, at places including the Festwochen in Berlin, the Lucerne and Schleswig-Holstein music festivals, the Sylt Chamber Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schwetzingen Castle festivals. In recent years she has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin and Frankfurt Chamber Brass. She's also passionate about accompanying Lieder, appearing in recital with people including Paula Murrihy, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner and Julia Dawson. Maria Ollikainen tutors members of Hessen Radio and Oper Frankfurt's orchestra academies. She qualified as a yoga teacher in 2015, working mainly with musicians from Oper Frankfurt and Jeunesses Musicales in Weikersheim Castle.