Janne Saksala is the 1st Double Bass Solo of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, since 2008.
He started his double bass studies in Helsinki, his home town, and pursued them at the Hochschule der Künste, in Berlin, with Klaus Stoll. He was awarded by the International Music Competition ARD, in Munich, and, two years later, won his first position as an orchestral musician, in 1993, as a double bassist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. As a soloist, Janne Saksala played with the Baverian Radio Orchestra, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Thüringen Gotha-Eisenach Philharmonic, the Pori Sinfonietta, and the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
On the chamber music field, Janne Saksala has collaborated with world-renowned musicians such as Isabelle Faust, Leonidas Kavakos, Guy Braunstein, Rainer Kussmaul, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Kolja Blacher, Jan Arne Söderblom, Pekka Kuusisto, Benjamin Schmid, Wolfgang Christ, Jan Vogler, Thomas Demenga, Jan-Erik Gustafsson, Leif Ove Andsnes, Olli Mustonen, and Igor Levit. He also toured around the world with the Oriol Ensemble, the Stradivari Soloists, the 12 cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Jazz Group of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
He frequently teaches masterclasses at the Academia Carl Flesch, in Baden-Baden, and was a guest professor at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”, in Berlin, at the Reina Sofia Music School, in Madrid, at the Royal College of Music, in London, at the Toho Gakuen Music University, in Toquio, and at the Juilliard School of Music, in New York.
Currently, Janne Saksala is Professor of Double Bass at the Berlin University of the Arts.