Members

Aino Peltomaa is a Finnish singer and musician, widely performing medieval, renaissance, contemporary and improvised music. Peltomaa collaborates actively with musicians and artists from different genres and regularly performs in Finland and abroad. Her innovative projects combine elements from early music, folk music and jazz, visual arts, dance and multimedia. Peltomaa performs with choirs and ensembles and collaborates regularly with internationally renowned conductors and artists. Peltomaa is actively asked to work with choirs and her vocal arrangements have been performed by such ensembles as Emma Salokoski Voices.

Peltomaa’s most recent album ÆR with her trio Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola for the prestigious label Outhere Music was released in early 2021. It gathered great international reviews and was chosen as the album of the week by the French National radio Musiq3. The debut album of Ensemble Gamut! for Eclipse Music, UT, was chosen as one of the best progressive albums of the year 2020, and received the Finnish Early Music Association’s “Early music achievement of the year” prize. As a lyricist Peltomaa debuted for the Belgian label Aspen Edities in 2019 with duo ‘k:amos, together with Belgian double bass player and composer Nathan Wouters.

Peltomaa has directed and performed Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen with the Finnish Kaari Ensemble, and premiered Antonio Teodoro Ortells’ Passion in Finland in collaboration with Andrew Lawrence-King. She has premiered contemporary pieces from Petros Paukkunen and Juhani Vesikkala. Peltomaa directs and co-directs many groups: Ensemble Gamut! (early music, Finnish folk music, impro, electronics), Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola (piano, viola da gamba, electronics and voice), Harmony of the Spheres (electroacoustic planetary surround soundscapes & Hildegard von Bingen’s chants), trio Sufira (medieval and contemporary music, Amor Céu (medieval music), Aino Peltomaa & Eija Kankaanranta (early and contemporary music). She is also a member of groups such as Aition, early music ensemble Kaleidos and the Helsinki Chamber Choir. Peltomaa has studied early music performance practices with Patrizia Bovi, Dominique Vellard, Baptiste Romain, Guillermo Perez, Corina Marti and Michal Gondko.

Peltomaa teaches and holds retreats that combine Gregorian chant, meditation and yoga and has received various grants for her artistic work. She holds master’s degrees in music and psychology.

 Ilkka Heinonen is a Helsinki-based musician and composer specialising in folk and world music, playing the jouhikko (Finnish/Karelian/Estonian bowed lyre), double bass, violone and viola da gamba. As one of the pioneers of jouhikko, Heinonen has sought to broaden the instrument’s range of uses: in his solo programmes, Heinonen explores the boundaries between the sacred and the secular through the performance practices of Karelian jouhikko music and early music (album Käki 2023). In turn, Ilkka Heinonen Trio’s experimental sound is influenced by both European jazz and Renaissance music (Savu 2015, Lohtu 2021 WOMEX 14 showcase). Heinonen plays the jouhikko in the experimental early music ensemble Ensemble Gamut! (UT 2020, RE 2022), in the ensemble of Sámi singer Ánnámáret (Nieguid duovdagat 2021, WOMEX 23 showcase) and in various chamber music ensembles. Ilkka Heinonen has premiered all the concertos composed for the jouhikko so far (T. Page 2013, K. Nagaraja 2017). Heinonen’s diverse double bass and violone playing can be heard on several recordings and in concerts – especially in Nordic and Eastern European folk music ensembles, contemporary dance productions and in various baroque ensembles. Heinonen is currently completing her artistic doctorate on the expressive possibilities of the jouhikko at the Sibelius Academy’s MuTri doctoral programme. 

Juho Myllylä is a recorder player, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He studied recorders at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jorge Isaac, and graduated with a master’s degree in 2020.

Juho works with the world-renowned renaissance recorder ensemble The Royal Wind Music since 2016. With the Finnish Ensemble Gamut! Juho is in constant search for new ways to perform early music through the fusion of medieval and renaissance music, folk music, improvisation and electronics. Their critically acclaimed debut album UT was released on Eclipse Music in 2020, followed by RE in 2022. Juho has also performed solo recitals of new music at such festivals and venues as Grachtenfestival, Gaudeamus, November Music and Rewire as well as the prestigious Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Winner of the Nordic and Baltic EAR-ly 2016 early music competition, and of the International Van Wassenaer Competition 2019, Juho strives for open-minded musicianship across styles and versatility regardless of imposed genre classifications. He feels passionate about earlier repertoire – medieval and renaissance music, yet is especially interested in the recorders’ countless possibilities in contemporary and new music and working with composers, with a steadily growing number of new works written for and premiered by him. Jazz, fusion, rock, prog, experimental, electro-acoustic, live electronic, soundtrack and film music are an integral part of his musical landscape. During his studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam Juho minored in electric guitar, studying with Hans Kunneman, and is, besides recorder playing, guitarist-singer-songwriter for the progressive alternative rock band Burntfield.

Tuomas Norvio is a sound designer and electronic artist with a background in electronic music. He now works across various artforms and genres. Norvio is interested in rhythmic and arrhythmic masses of sound, and using acoustic and sampled sounds, as well as immersive sound, as material.

Norvio has made sound and music for contemporary dance and circus, installations, documentary films and different artists. He has worked with a vast array of artists like Kimmo Pohjonen, Tapani Rinne, defunensemble, Pekka Kuusisto, Circo Aereo, Johanna Nuutinen and Tero Saarinen Company. He has been awarded the Säde and Teosto prizes.

Vappu Rossi is a visual and media artist working in Helsinki, Finland. She is a contemporary drawing artist pushing boundaries, inspired by experimental challenges, movement drawing, live drawing, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Rossi is nominated for the Below Zero Finnish Art Award 2025, and she was the Fine Arts Academy of Finland Prize Nominee 2022. Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals around the world since the late 1990s. 

Rossi has held 24 solo exhibitions and taken part over 70 group exhibitions and festivals. Her artworks can be found in many important collections. Rossi has a master’s degree from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Besides her work as an independent artist, she is leading the Art Room in the University of Helsinki, being the first female Drawing Master in the University’s history.

Rossi’s work finds form in a variety of media: drawings, paintings, installations, light boxes, and animations. She’s known for her expressive depictions of movement and large-scale studies of human face. In her cross-art projects, she has worked with prominent choreographers, dancers, and musicians, as well as with many theaters, museums, and other art institutions.

Rossi’s media art animations are often slightly humorous and subtile both in colour and soundscape. Reflections on change and the passage of time, as well as the visualization of slow processes or magical metamorphoses, are recurring elements in her works. She’s always intrigued to test her limits. 

Harpsichordist Marianna Henriksson graduated from Sibelius Academy, Helsinki and Universität der Künste, Berlin. She performs in Finland and all over Europe as a soloist and as a member of many different ensembles, among others with Les Ambassadeurs (France), Helsinki Baroque Orchestra (Finland), KORE Baroque Orchestra (Poland) and Barocco Boreale (Finland). She was chosen as the harpsichordist of European Union Baroque Orchestra for the seasons 2013-14, and during that period she performed in most of European countries with renowned conductors. She takes a special interest in interdisciplinary collaboration: Until now she has e.g. recorded Finnish folk music on the harpsichord, taken part in a Breakdance show world tour performing J. S. Bach, performed as a musician in numerous contemporary dance productions, taken part in opera productions from Monteverdi via Stravinsky to Saariaho, and premiered new Finnish music for the harpsichord. Henriksson’s debut solo recording Frammenti del discorso amoroso – 17th century Italian harpsichord music – was released on Sibarecords/Naxos in April 2018.