Janne Saksala
1st Principal Bass

Janne Saksala
Born 1967 in Helsinki
1st Principal Bass
Member since 01.09.1994

»I actually wasn’t at all keen on becoming an orchestral musician. But the double-bass repertoire is very small if you don’t play in an orchestra: only Dittersdorf and Koussevitzky. You don’t have contact with the great composers. In the long run, that isn’t enough. And now I’m completely happy being an orchestral musician.«

When a youth orchestra was one double-bass player short, the teacher asked Janne Saksala, who already played piano and electric bass, if he wanted to take a crack at this instrument. He said yes immediately and with great enthusiasm. In 1981 he began double-bass studies at the music school of his native Helsinki, continuing from 1986 at the Berlin Hochschule der Künste. Janne Saksala is not only a passionate orchestral musician, he is also in demand as a soloist, chamber-music player and teacher at renowned musical institutions, including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. He collaborates regularly with composers and has given the premieres of numerous new works. In addition, Janne Saksala was until 2006 a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Jazz Group founded in summer 1999. His favourite free-time activities are reading, cooking and sailing.