Total Cello Ensemble is a group of six high-quality cellists that combine their professionalism in classical music with a new way of thinking. That often means breaking down musical barriers. They combine in a unique and creative way classical music with attempts to create new ways of musical expression and interpretation.
In the fantastic Total Cello Show you can hear the band's ideas about how far their instruments can reach. Their wide repertoire reaches from Sibelius to Formula Uno Race or sounds in the wilderness of Finnish Lapland. The ensemble plays also both Argentinian and Finnish tango in a very touching way, but the basis of the repertoire is on classical music.
Watch and listen
Sibelius: March of the Jaegers
Kiiski: Formula Uno
Kärki: That's why I feel so sad (with soprano Marjukka Tepponen)
Hatsaturjan: Sabre Dance from Gayane
Sibelius: Impromptu
Piazzolla: Canto de Octubre
Belmonte: Ecstasy
A classical music student often studies alone with his/her instrument most of the time. It was Professor Hannu Kiiski's idea to have a change and give a new kind of possibility to his students to play together. That was in 1994. During twenty years the ensemble has performed about 500 times, also on several festivals.
The members of this unique Total Cello Ensemble are now Primus Motor Hannu Kiiski, professor of cello instruction at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Tuomas Lehto, solo cellist at Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tuomas Ylinen, solo cellist at Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Samuli Peltonen, winner of the International Penderecki Competition and cellist at Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and two solo cellists at Finland's National Opera Orchestra Tomas Nunes-Garces and Jussi Vähälä.