Sibbe Live!: Transformations
11.03.2026 19:00 – 20:00
Standard price 20€ +order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Student/pensioner/child 15€ +order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Ola Karlsson, cello, Valeria Resjan, piano
From Frescobaldi’s cascades of sound and Boccherini’s elegance, Schubert displays his genius in virtuosic variations on a Viennese Classical theme. The focus then shifts to Paris through Chopin, Debussy and Stravinsky, where Romanticism and Impressionism flow in dialogue with the historical commedia dell’arte characters Pierrot and Pulcinella.
G. Frescobaldi–Cassadó: Toccata
L. Boccherini: Sonata in A major
Adagio – Allegro
F. Schubert: Introduction, Theme and Variations (Piatigorsky)
F. Chopin: Étude Op. 25 No. 7
C. Debussy: Sonata in D minor
Prologue – Sérénade – Finale
I. Stravinsky: Suite Italienne
Introduzione – Serenata – Aria – Tarantella – Minuetto e Finale
(in collaboration with Gregor Piatigorsky)
OLA KARLSSON, cello
Ola Karlsson, born in 1952, began playing the cello at the age of ten with Bertil Jernbom in Nyköping. In 1969 he became a student of Professor Erling Blöndal Bengtsson at the Edsberg Institute of Music, and after receiving a soloist diploma he continued his soloist studies in 1973 at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where he was awarded the Carl Nielsen Prize. This prize, together with a scholarship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, made it possible for him to pursue further studies with Professor Gregor Piatigorsky in Los Angeles during the great cello master’s final year of life.
From 1976 to 2019, Ola Karlsson held a central position in the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he was appointed principal cellist in 1985. In 2010 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In addition to performing in Sweden and abroad as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as appearing on radio and television, Ola Karlsson served from 1979 to 2022 as professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and, from 1990, led the school’s string orchestra for 30 years. His pedagogical work currently continues at Mälardalen University and also at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
He has also given acclaimed masterclasses and concerts at the Umeå International Chamber Music Festival and the Gotland Baltic Music Academy, as well as in Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Canada, the United States, Brazil and China.
Ola Karlsson plays a cello built by Peter Westerlund in 2020, and his concert collaboration with pianist Valeria Resjan began in 2012.
VALERIA RESJAN, piano
Valeria Resjan, a Russian pianist born in Rostov-on-Don, moved to Finland in 1990. She studied with Valeria Varshavskaya in Russia, and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki her teachers were Hamsa Al-Wadi and Ralf Gothóni. In 1996 she had the privilege of studying for one year with Professor Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid.
Valeria Resjan has won piano competitions such as the Finnish national Maj Lind Competition in Helsinki and the international Pilar Bayona Competition in Zaragoza. She has also received honorary distinctions in other contexts, including the Montreal International Music Competition. She is active as a soloist and chamber musician, performing in Finland, Sweden, Russia, England, Spain, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and China. She has collaborated with renowned string quartets such as the Takács, Chilingirian and Michelangelo Quartets, as well as with many distinguished conductors and instrumentalists. She is a regular guest at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.
Valeria Resjan teaches at both the Sibelius Academy and the Helsinki Conservatory, and she regularly gives masterclasses within Finland and abroad.