Hanna-Mari Lehtonen is a Finnish conductor, music educator, composer, and producer. She has Master's degree in music and Bachelor's Degree both in music pedagogics and in arts, entertainment, and media management.

Lehtonen started playing the clarinet at the age of 6, and later on she changed her instrument to trumpet. Every summer she went to a music camp and that is where she first showed interest in conducting. She took her first conducting masterclass with Pertti Pekkanen at the age of 12.

Conducting every summer at masterclasses she continued her music studies, but kept her focus on the trumpet. Although as a part of her Bachelor's degree, she studied orchestral conducting under Juha Törmä in Pirkanmaa Polytechnic and choral conducting with Ágnes Török as an exchange student in University of Debrecen, Hungary.

Lehtonen studied conducting in Master's degree programme in Sibelius Academy, first under Dr. Peter Ettrup Larsen and later on with Petri Komulainen, and with guest professors like Hannu Lintu and Johannes Schlaefli. She specialized in wind orchestra conducting and in her studies she visited all professional Finnish wind bands. In her Diploma concert in January 2018 she conducted the Finnish Guards Band in their classical music concert series, with highest possible grade. She graduated in May 2018.

Lehtonen has been actively participating master classes with maestros like Jorma Panula and Massimiliano Caldi, and she has been chosen to five international competitions from hundreds of applicants.

For over 20 years Lehtonen has worked in different music institutes as a part time trumpet and chamber music teacher. She has also worked as a freelance conductor in amateur wind bands. At the moment she is holding a permanent position as a coordinating teacher of ensemble education in Riihimäki Music Institute. Lehtonen has composed or arranged music for all wind band levels, and also for orchestra, brass quintet, and other small chamber ensembles. In 2018 she won the second price in a composing competition organized by the Arizona State University.

With her education and her experience, Lehtonen has become a versatile lecturer and educator. She has visited various music events all around Finland giving workshops in cultural management and in different aspects of music. A couple of times she has had the honour of being in the jury of the Finnish Wind Band competitions both as a member and chairman.

She has her own sole propriety for music publishing. Her music is also published in the United States by Leading Tones Music. She has been very active around Finnish wind band publishers and has been representing them in events like Mid Europe - International Wind Music Festival in Schladming, Austria.

Link to CV