Satu Paavola (b. 1980) is a Finnish pianist. She began her piano lessons at the age of four, first privately with Liubow Obmolotkova, later with Michal L. Zielinski, Eva Poutanen, Meri Louhos and Prof. Matti Raekallio. In 2004 Satu Paavola graduated as a Master of Music from the Helsinki Sibelius Academy. After graduation she completed her education with a Soloklasse Konzertdiplom at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media in 2011. In 2008-2018 Satu Paavola studied as a postgraduate student at the DocMus doctoral department at the Sibelius University. In 2018 she graduated as a Doctor of Music.
Satu Paavola has gained several prizes in national and international piano competitions. She has performed as a soloist in various concerts and festivals in Finland and abroad. Satu Paavola’s wide solo repertoire consists of diverse piano music from baroque to contemporary styles. She has also shown a special interest in rarely performed piano
repertoire of the 19th century. Her debut piano recording (released in 2012) consists of Sigismond Thalberg’s (1812—1871) piano fantasies based on bel canto operas. The following year, in 2013, Satu Paavola released her second piano recording of Charles-Valentin Alkan’s (1813-1888) solo piano works.
One of the characteristics in Satu Paavola’s musical path is a great admiration for classical singing and opera. Simultaneously with her pianistic education she has studied singing. The interest in singing aspects in pianist’s work appears also in the subject of her doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy as well as postdoctoral research. Her doctoral thesis “Ideals of Bel Canto Applied to the Piano” was published in 2018. It concentrates on bodily aspects of producing a singing sound quality. The thesis was introduced at the 2018 London International Piano Symposium.
