Kasmir Uusitupa
Violin
Kasmir Uusitupa was born in 1995 and began playing the violin when just three years old as a pupil of Lauri Untamala at the East Helsinki Music Institute and then at the Sibelius Academy under Kaija Saarikettu. He was an exchange student at the Paris Conservatoire where his teacher was Olivier Charlier, and he then attended Antti Tikkanen's violin class for a year. In 2018 Uusitupa began studying at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland. He has also been in various masterclasses. He has deputised as leader of the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. From 2011 to 2018 he played with the Borea Quartet, quartet-in-residence at Kuhmo. In 2009 he performed in a Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Concert and later played as soloist with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and the Retuperän WBK. Uusitupa has received the Martti Pokela prize as young spelman of the year.