Kasmir Uusitupa Kasmir Uusitupa (b.1995) began playing the violin at the age of three under the pedagogical guidance of Henriette Rantalaiho at the Sibelius Academy as a pupil of Antti Tikkanen. At the age of six, he transferred to the East Helsinki Music Institute and by the age of 11 he had completed the basic examinations in violin as a pupil of Lauri Untamala. Since 2008, he has studied violin at the Youth Department of the Sibelius Academy under Professor Kaija Saarikettu. Kasmir Uusitupa has also regularly participated in many summer and masterclasses taught by Hagai Shaham, Serguei Azizian, Aaron Rosand, Olivier Charlier and Pavel Vernikov, among others. When he was younger, Kasmir Uusitupa also played a great deal of folk music at numerous Finnish festivals. In 2004 and 2005, he was awarded the Martti Pokela Award as a young folk musician from Uusimaa. In 2009, he received the best per- former award at the Kuressaare Music Festival in Estonia and played as a soloist at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s concert for young soloists at Finlandia Hall. He has subsequently performed as a soloist for a number of orchestras. for example, at Temppeliaukio Church, Carelia Hall, Martinus Hall and in Åland. Between 2007 and 2011, he has performed as a soloist, concertmaster and fi rst violinist with the Helsinki Strings conducted by Geza Szilvay in Finland and on many tours in Europe. He also plays under the guidance of Paavo PohjolaPP along with Tami Pohjola, Riina Piirilä and Senja Rummukainen in the Borea Quartet founded in 2011. Borea has performed at numerous festivals in Finland, and in the summer of 2014 they were elected Young Artist of the Year at the Hauho Music Festival. In 2010, Kasmir Uusitupa made it to the semi-fi nals of the Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar, Germany, and in the summer of 2012, as the youngest participant, he reached the second round of the international Carl Nielsen Violin Competition in Odense, Denmark. In the spring of 2013, he received one of fi ve main awards of equal value in the Sibelius Academy’s Anja Ignatius Violin Competition. He also received a recognition award. In the spring of 2015, he was awarded as a fi nalist in the Kuopio National Violin Competition, and he was chosen as the soloist for the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra. Kasmir Uusitupa plays the OP Art Foundation’s Antonio Stradivari “Irish” violin from 1702..