Satu Vänskä

Satu Vänskä is Principal Violin of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She regularly performs as lead violin and soloist with the ACO.

Satu was born to a Finnish family in Japan where she began violin lessons at the age of three. Her family relocated to Finland when she was ten and she continued her violin studies with Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy in Finland, and later at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich as a pupil of Ana Chumachenco where she finished her diploma. She was named ‘Young Soloist of the Year’ by Sinfonia Lahti in 1998, and a few years later was prize winner of the ‘Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben’. From 2001 Satu played under the auspices of Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now Foundation which gave her the opportunity to perform with musicians including Radu Lupu and Heinrich Schiff.

In addition to performing as Principal Violin with the ACO, Satu performed as orchestra leader and soloist in the 2018 London production of Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret with the Aurora Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. She has appeared as soloist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Arctic Chamber Orchestra and in recital at the Sydney Opera House and the Melbourne Recital Centre, opening their Great Performers Series in 2019. Prior to working with the ACO Satu performed with the Munich Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

She is the director, frontwoman, violinist and vocalist of electro-acoustic ensemble ACO Underground, also known as Satu In The Beyond, and as a violinist and singer has collaborated with artists that include Barry Humphries, Meow Meow, Jonny Greenwood, The Presets, Jim Moginie and Brian Ritchie in settings ranging from New York’s Le Poisson Rouge and Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory to Slovenia’s Maribor Festival and the US’s Tanglewood Festival. Satu also performed as vocalist in the soundtracks and live performances of Mountain and River, the ACO’s acclaimed cinematic collaborations with director Jennifer Peedom.

She plays the 1728/29 Stradivarius violin on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.