Tiila Kangas started playing the violin at the age of 7 in her home town of
Kokkola, and switched to viola when she was 15. She later studied at the
Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, with a master's degree in 2005, the Edsberg
Music Institute in Sweden and the Royal College of Music in London, where she
received a Master of Music degree in Chamber Music Studies in 2000.

Kangas is a founder member of the Tempera Quartet and artistic director of
the Katrina Chamber Music Festival in the Åland Islands. She was assistant
principal viola of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra before joining the Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008. Kangas plays a Felice Guadagnini viola
of 1856, on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation.