Pekka Kuusisto (violinist)

Pekka Kuusisto at the Festival of Joy 2019

Pekka Kuusisto (born October 7, 1976 in Espoo ) is a Finnish violinist .

biography

Pekka Kuusisto started playing the violin at the age of three . His first teacher was Géza Szilvay. From 1985 he studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Tuomas Haapanen. From 1992 to 1996 he studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University School of Music.

From the 2009/10 to 2011/12 season, Pekka Kuusisto was an artist in the “Junge Wilde” series at the Dortmund Konzerthaus . Kuusisto has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , Cleveland Orchestra , Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra , Philadelphia Orchestra , Philharmonia Orchestra London, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , BBC Symphony Orchestra , Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin , Australian Chamber Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra . He worked with the conductors Valery Gergiev , Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy , Osmo Vänska, Paavo Berglund, Thomas Dausgaard and Leif Segerstam .

Pekka Kuusisto is artistic director of the Lake Tuusula Chamber Music Festival in Finland with his brother Jaakko .

Kuusisto is also interested in other types of music such as folk , jazz and electronic music . He has made jazz recordings with the Töykeät trio and plays progressive jazz. He experimented with electronic instruments and has performed with the Finnish electronic jazz group Rinneradio and with the Norwegian noise duo Fe-Mail . His albums Sibelius: Viulukonsertto and Vivaldin vuodenajat were honored with a gold record in Finland .

Awards

1995: 1st prize at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki as the first Finn and prize for the best interpretation of the Sibelius violin concerto