Anna Riikonen
Member of the orchestra since 2010.
Anna Riikonen has been a member of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since 2010. Born in 1983 in Kontiolahti, eastern Finland, she began playing flute with Caroline Kamppila in Joensuu, and then studied with Rainer Risberg in Lahti and Anja Voipio in Helsinki. In 2004–2008, she studied at the Sibelius Academy under Ilpo Mansnerus. She obtained a diploma in 2010 with the highest marks.
Riikonen also studied with Moshe Aron Epstein at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, and with Andrea Lieberknecht at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. She studied piccolo with Tapio Laivaara in Helsinki and with Gudrun Hinze-Hönig in Hanover. In addition, she has participated in numerous master classes, including with Robert Dick, Michael Faust and Paul Edmund-Davies.
Anna Riikonen has played in many orchestras in Scandinavia and abroad. She has also performed as a chamber musician with numerous ensembles and as a soloist with, among others, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2012 in Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major, and in 2008 with the Joensuu City Orchestra in Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G Major.
Before coming to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Anna Riikonen worked in the Guards Band in Helsinki and the Oulu Symphony Orchestra. In autumn 2013, Riikonen substituted as alternate section leader in the Royal Swedish Orchestra and in summer 2016, she was invited to the orchestra at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.