Johannes Välja
/ cello
Johannes Välja started learning the cello at Tallinn Music High School with Mart Laas in 2001. After finishing his bachelor and master’s degree at Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Prof. Wen-Sinn Yang, Johannes is now continuing his studies under the guidance of Prof. Julian Steckel.
In addition he has studied in Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP) with prof. Raphael Pidoux. Johannes has taken part of many masterclasses with Wolfgang Boettcher, Natalja Gutman, Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Ivan Monighetti etc. He has also performed as a soloist with several orchestras, for example Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Bad Reichenhaller Philharmonie and Philharmonic Orchestra Budweis. In 2018 Johannes recorded Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with fellow students Eva Zavaro and Clara Siegle and the Symphony Orchestra of Hochschule für Musik und Theater München under the baton of Prof. Marcus Bosch.
Johannes has taken part in many festivals in Georgia, Canada, Estonia, Germany and China both as a chamber musician and a teacher. His chamber music partners include outstanding musicians like Julia Fischer, Christoph Poppen, Mi-kyung Lee, Markus Wolf, Hariolf Schlichtig, Diyang Mei and Wen-Sinn Yang. In addition, Johannes has collected invaluable experience playing in orchestras such as the Estonian Festival Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Bayerisches Staatsorchester and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
Since 2015 Johannes is a scholarship holder of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation “Live Music Now” in Munich.