Heini Kärkkäinen studied piano at the Sibelius Academy under Liisa Pohjala and continued her studies with Ralf Gothóni and Jacques Rouvier, among others. She won the Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Competition in 1984 and two years later she came second in the Maj Lind Piano Competition. In 1993 Kärkkäinen was nominated Young Artist of the Espoo International Piano Festival. She has performed as soloist with numerous Finnish orchestras and has also played chamber music extensively in Europe and the United States. Kärkkäinen has given first performances of many contemporary Finnish works, including Olli Koskelin’s Piano Concerto, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Mikko Heiniö’s Piano Concerto and, at Kuhmo, his Piano Quintet and Bass Clarinet Trio. She was involved in a series of concerts that started in 2012 with the violinist Réka Szilvay: it was known as Beethoven PLUS and the main focus was Beethoven’s sonatas for violin and piano. Kärkkäinen has made several prize-winning recordings. For example, her disc of music by Saint-Saëns was British BBC Music Magazine’s disc of the month in March 2007, and Gramophone Magazine included it in its list of recommended recordings. Heini Kärkkäinen also teaches piano at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.