Hilma Kolunen is a pianist born in 2007 and she lives in Kangasala. Hilma is a student at the East Helsinki Music Institute and her teachers are Kristiina Junttu and Katarina Nummi-Kuisma. She has previously been taught by Antti Hotti and Katarina Nummi-Kuisma at the Helsinki Conservatory of Music and by Sanna Viitaniemi at the Pirkanmaa Music Institute. Hilma was admitted to the Youth Piano Academy Finland in the summer of 2021.
Hilma has also been taught by various teachers during periods of the Youth Piano Academy and Master Classes, for example the Raudaskylä Soiva Kesä, Nurmes Summer Academy and Chioggia Festival "Musica in Laguna d'arte". In Master Classes she has been taught by e.g. Konstantin Bogino, Henri Sigfridsson, Teppo Koivisto, Matti Raekallio and Severin von Eckardstein.
Hilma has played as a soloist with the Camerata Vihti chamber orchestra during the period of the Youth Piano Academy (2022) and at the Master Class with Orchestra d'archi G. Zarlino di Chioggia (2023, 2024). She has also been selected for East Helsinki Music Institute performance trip to New York and has performed e.g. at Carnegie Hall.
Hilma has been awarded for example in the international Tapiola piano competition 2021, the international piano competition "Città di San Donà di Piave" 2022 and the international piano competition "Forum Pianistico Città di Chioggia 2023, Juniores B". She has also participated in e.g. Leevi Madetoja piano competition in 2022 and the international piano competition "Forum Pianistico Città di Chioggia 2024, Seniores".
(Photo © Ville Lehvonen)