Born in Rovaniemi, in northern Finland, Annariina Jokela was six years old when she began playing the violin at the music institute in that city. She first took up the viola when she was 13, by now inspired by chamber music. Her teachers were Igor Arias and Taru Lehto. In 2013 Jokela began her studies at the Sibelius Academy under Lilli Maijala and later continued at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, where her teacher was Nils Mönkemeyer. As finalist in the Tampere National Viola Competition 2017, Jokela performed as soloist with the Tampere Philharmonic and with the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu in 2018. She has also played with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. She has attended masterclasses given by Tabea Zimmermann, Diemut Poppen, Lars Anders Tomter, Rainer Moog, Yuval Gotlibovich, Atte Kilpeläinen and Tommi Aalto. Jokela’s chamber music studies were guided by Marko Ylönen, the Meta4 Quartet and Dirk Mommertz. She plays a Sibelius Academy Mantegazza viola from 1684.
