Tara Jovana Valkonen

Tara'’s career in music began with playing cello at the age of six, and soon she was imagining her future as a professional cellist – and a sculptor. But picking up the guitar at the age of 13 brought a change, and although she didn’t abandon cello playing, it was rock music now that became the main interest in her life, until in high school when she found herself increasingly interested in contemporary music.

In addition to playing and composing Tara designs and builds large installations with her architect parter Siiri Hänninen. Room227 was part of the Musica Nova 2021 festival, after which Markus Kåhre and the Mänttä Art Festival commissioned them to create a new installation Pesä/NEST for the exhibition of 2022.

Tara’s work and studies have been kindly supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Teosto Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Music Foundation, The Martin Wegelius Memorial Foundation, and the Paulo Foundation among others.