The Tempera Quartet

Laura Vikman, violin
Silva Koskela, violin
Tiila Kangas, viola
Ulla Lampela, cello

The Tempera Quartet, formed in 1997, rapidly gained prominence as an outstanding ensemble in its native Finland. The ensemble has also been hailed elsewhere and for the 2000/2001 season the quartet was selected for the “Rising Stars” scheme of the European Concert Hall Organization. This resulted in successful début recitals at the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Athens Concert Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

The Tempera Quartet has performed at most Finnish chamber music festivals – among them the Kuhmo, Helsinki, Turku and Naantali festivals – and the ensemble was nominated by the ‘Finland Festivals’ organization as Young Artist of the Year in 2001. The quartet has a busy international concert schedule, having toured in Germany, Russia, Austria, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Turkey, Greece, Czech Republic, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. From 2004 until 2007 the Tempera Quartet was responsible for the artistic direction of the Riihimäki Summer Concerts chamber music festival. Their complete recording of Jean Sibelius’s works for string quartet (BIS Records), including several world première recordings, as well as their recent recording of Pehr Henrik Nordgren’s 10th and 11th string quartets (ALBA Records) have met with great acclaim.

The Tempera Quartet has had a broad musical education with studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Edsberg Music Institute in Sweden and the Royal College of Music in London.

Laura Vikman plays on an Andrea Guarneri violin (1680), Tiila Kangas a Felice Guadagnini viola (1856) and Ulla Lampela a Claude Pierray cello (1714) kindly lent by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.