The Festival Head Start (Varaslähtö) is the closing concert of the Nordic Piano Academy's master class and, as the name suggests, a head start into the week of the Mänttä Music Festival.

The Nordic Piano Academy organises an annual master class for young pianists in conjunction with the Mänttä Music Festival. It brings together talented pianists of school and upper secondary school age from all the Nordic countries. The master class is organised in cooperation with the Youth Piano Academy Finland.

More details about the programme and performers will be published on this page at a later date.

Professors of the Nordic Piano Academy in 2026:

- Johan Fröst, Kungliga Musikhögskolan, Stockholm, Sweden
- Ivari Ilja, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn, Estonia
- Niklas Pokki, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland