Soile Stratkauskas, BMus (RNCM), MMus (RAM), LRAM, ARAM

Finnish-born Soile Stratkauskas found her passion in the pure and eloquent sound of the wooden flute. As a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, her performance on early flutes ranges from Bach to Tchaikovsky. Soile started her flute studies at the Conservatory of Joensuu, Finland. Already as a high school student, Soile played with the Joensuu City Orchestra regulary. She completed her education in the UK, first at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and then at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied early flutes with Lisa Beznosiuk and gained her Master’s Degree with distinction. To deepen her knowledge of Classical and Romantic performance practice Soile took part in the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique/Advanced Study Programme in Saintes, France, with Rachel Brown as her instrumental tutor.

Soile has played with many prominent period instrument orchestras in the UK, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli Consort & Players and has toured Europe with these groups. With her chamber ensemble ‘The Four Temperaments‘ she was awarded the Leverhulme Chamber Music Junior Fellowship in 2007-2008 and has performed in various festivals including the London Handel Festival, Saintes Festival in France and Musica Antigua in Barcelona.

In 2010 Soile moved to Canada and is now based in Victoria, with her husband David, who is the Music Director at St John the Divine Church. Soile has quickly established herself on the West Coast early music scene, and has performed in the Early Music Society of the Islands’ series, Early Music Vancouver series, at the Pacific Baroque Festival, and is the principal flutist of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. Soile is passionate about making music happen in the community and bringing together local players and audiences. She is the founder of the Victoria Baroque, which is now in their thirteenth full season presenting high-quality baroque concerts in Victoria.

Soile is on faculty with the Early Music Vancouver’s Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme at the University of British Columbia and the Artistic Director of the Summer Baroque Intensive Programme at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.

When not playing her flute, Soile enjoys hiking, biking, swimming and singing.

updated August 2023