Saima Malmivaara (born 2006) started playing the cello at the age of five and has been studying at the Youth Department of the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki since the fall of 2021 under Tuomas Ylinen. In addition, Saima studies at the Cello Academy, where her teachers are Tuomas Lehto and Tuomas Ylinen. Guest teachers at the Cello Academy have included Marko Ylönen, Erkki Rautio, Arto Noras, Sennu Laine, and Torleif Thedéen.
Saima won 1st place in the 16-20 age group at the Porvoo Cello Competition in 2024. In 2021, she won 2nd place in the 13-15 age group at the Porvoo Cello Competition and was awarded for the best performance of Sebastian Fagerlund's commissioned work, Recitativo. In the 2022 Turku Cello Competition, she was awarded two special prizes. Additionally, Saima won a prize in the 9-13 age group at the Salon Cello Competition in 2019.
In the spring of 2022, Saima performed the first movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto at the Young Soloists Concert of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Saima, along with her trio (Isabella Pätiälä, piano, and Albert Sahlström, violin), won a prize at the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Chamber Music Competition. She has received chamber music training from Petri Aarniol, Tuomas Lehto, and Liisa and Janne Malmivaara. During a chamber music exchange at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the trio was taught by Fabio Bidini, Clive Greensmith, Martin Beaver, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
Saima's studies have been supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Brunberg Foundation, the Aktia Foundation, the Martin Wegelius Memorial Foundation, and the Porvoo Lions Club.