Finnish pianist, Laura Mikkola, 1974, has studied at the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the University-School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, with Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, Gary Graffman, Dmitri Baskirov, Tapani Valsta and Ferenc Rados.

She has been the recipient of many awards, including second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and with the prize of the public, 1995; first prize in the International Unisa Transnet Piano Competition in Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, 1994; first prize in the Maj Lind Competition in Helsinki, 1992; and first prize in the International M. Ravel Piano Competition in France, 1988. She was awarded the Finland prize for Young Artist, 1995.

She has been a soloist with Helsinki Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Helsinki, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra of St. Petersbourg, The Residentie Orkest, Stuttgart Staatsoper Orchestra, St John’s Smith Square Orchestra, London, Royal Philharmonic of Flanders, L’orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orchestre National de Belgique, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi di Kuhmo, Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Egyptian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra etc.

She has had recitals all over Europe, Japan, United States, in China and in South America, in Columbia and Chile. She has also performed in the Festival International de Colmar, France; 14th Festival de Música de Canarias, Spain; the Helsinki Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland; Festival Glories of the Keyboards in Manchester, Great Britain; Yokohama International Piano Concert Festival, Japan; Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker, Germany; Lutoslawski Festival, Warsaw, Poland; Oslo, Kammermusikfestival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States; Tonhalle, Zürich, Switzerland; Château de Bourlingster, Luxembourg, Châtelet Paris, France, Rudolfinum Prague, Czech Republic, Zipper Hall, Los Angeles, Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland and many others.

Laura Mikkola has been chosen to perform with conductors such as Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, Sergiu Comissiona, Osmo Vänskä, Valery Gergijev, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pierre Bartholomée, Aleksandr Lazarev, Mikko Franck, Okko Kamu, Peter Csaba, Eri Klas, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ahmed El-Saedi, Hannu Lintu, John Storgards and others worldwide.

Her Suntory Hall debut, Tokyo, was in 1995, Carnegie Hall debut (Weill Recital Hall, New York) was in 1996, her Hollywood Bowl debut with Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1997, Kennedy Center debut with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra in 2002 (Washington D.C) and her debut with Radio Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt in 2005.

Laura Mikkola has 49 concertos in her repertoire including Bartok No. 2, Prokofjev No. 2, von Sauer No. 2, Lindberg piano concerto, Rachmaninov No. 3, Beethoven: Triple Concerto. She also plays chamber music with Maestro Philippe Entremont, Juha Uusitalo etc.. She performs regularly in China and Japan.

Since 2003 she has been the artistic director of Iitti Music Festival (Finland).