Stefanie Tuurna
Stefanie Tuurna (born 1988) is a Finnish pianist, composer and music teacher.
Employment
Currently she is working as a teacher of improvisation, piano, music theory and chamber music. She is employed at the Musik- och kulturskolan Sandels and at the Helsingfors Arbis, and also as a ballet accompanist at the Finnish National Ballet. She performs regularly as a pianist and organizes concerts and performances for her compositions.
Improvisation
Tuurna is a sought after expert in the field of musical improvisation. She teaches the subject to students ranging from young children to adults, from beginners to professionals. The participants of her courses typically consist of different instrumentalists with various stylistical backgrounds. Her courses vary in length from workshops to week-long summer courses, and year-long courses. On the topic of improvisation, Tuurna has lectured at the Sibelius Academy and coached teachers from various music institutes in Finland.
Education
Tuurna holds a Master of Music from the Sibelius Academy, where she studied classical piano with Margit Rahkonen and composition with Juhani Nuorvala. She has also attended master classes with Erik. T. Tawaststjerna, Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna, Joonas Pohjonen, Matti Raekallio, Teppo Koivisto and Arto Satukangas. She is specialized in techniques of classical improvisation, which she has studied in master classes with David Dolan, Robert Levine, Erja Joukamo-Ampuja and Anto Pett. Her studies included pedagogical studies for a higher education degree in the arts (60cr), and she wrote her thesis on the usage of improvisation in adult piano pedagogy.
Publication
She has also published a guidebook of improvisation for mature beginners of piano playing: Vapaat kädet - Pianonsoiton ja improvisoinnin opas (2018).
The book can be purchased here:
Video lessons that can be used as support for self-studies of the guidebook can be found on YouTube:
Gallery (teaching improvisation):