My name is Tiina Kukkula. I’m a piano teacher, music pedagog from Northern Finland, from the city of Oulu. Oulu is a quite small city. There are approximately 200,000 people living in this town. We’re not quite in Lapland yet, but it doesn’t take any more than a few hours to drive there and the reindeer husbandry area starts from under a hundred kilometres from here.
I have been working as a piano teacher over 20 years and I love my work. I work in a little municipality of Ii, which is known for its work for climate protection. I work in an innovative environment where every teacher can feel that their work is respected. Students are motivated and we do all kinds of projects together, play chamber music, compose, mix other arts to music, etc. You can read about my teaching philosophy here.
Music is my passion. I started my piano studies at conservatory of Oulu at the age of six. I have graduated as a Master of culture and arts from Oulu University of Applied Science where I studied music pedagogy. I love playing chamber music, lied music is close to my heart and I give concerts occasionally. A few years ago I fell in love with composing. What a wonderful way it is to express myself, get a free flow of creativity. I compose mainly lied music and piano music. You can listen to some of my compositions from my YouTube channel and I will be selling sheet music later in these pages.
I live in a little suburban village close to Oulu with my family; husband and three children. We have had rottweilers since 1997. Now we have only one, a male rottweiler called Kari. We are planning taking another one in the near future. I take long walks or go running with my dog every day and I do workouts at the gym regularly. I have a blog in Finnish, but I haven’t had time to write there almost anything this fall. I do handicrafts and draw sometimes.
I’m a flow addict. I spend my days in flow. I play the piano, compose, I create something new, plan the future, study new things and I enjoy flow at work also. Calming down isn’t my strength, so I’m learning to meditate and take time to relax. I think walking in the nature is the best meditation ever. That’s where I get almost all of my ideas and many solutions to problems pop into my head while I’m walking with my dog. Luckily I live in Finland, where’s safe to go for a walk everywhere.