Pekka Kuusisto
Finland can boast vigorous scenes in jazz, electronic, and folk music as well as a legendary educational emphasis on the classics, and violinist Pekka Kuusisto has aimed toward a career and a charismatic presentation that builds connections among these various genres.
Born in Espoo on October 7, 1976, Kuusisto began playing the violin at age three and enrolled at the Sibelius Academy when he was nine. His primary teacher there was Tuomas Haapanen. Part of Kuusisto's training was American; he studied under Miriam Fried and Paul Bliss at Indiana University between 1992 and 1996. By the end of that time, he was already making an impression as a top-level player, taking home first prize at the 1995 International Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki. He has recorded the Sibelius violin concerto for the Ondine label as part of its Absolute Sibelius release but has concentrated on material of a slightly more contemporary tinge, from Bartók to Rautavaara.
A beneficiary of the movement of modern Scandinavian music into the concert repertory, Kuusisto has also helped that movement along with gutsy performances drawing on his experience outside concert music: he plays jazz with a trio called Töykeät and other progressive musicians including Finland's RinneRadio, and he has dabbled in electronic genres ranging from hip-hop to noise music. An admirer of jazz experimentalist John Zorn, Kuusisto told Erica Jeal of England's Guardian that "I realised that...it was actually maybe one of the best things that I have -- this desire or ability to improvise." He also heads a Finnish folk ensemble, the Luomu Players, and has appeared on Finnish rock and pop releases.
Kuusisto has performed with top orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, smaller American groups such as the Alabama and Oregon symphony orchestras, the City of Birmingham and BBC symphony orchestras, and the innovative Australian Chamber Orchestra. His brother Jaakko is also a musician, and the two share the artistic directorship of Finland's Lake Tuusula Chamber Music Festival. From 2006-2013, Pekka was artist-in-residence with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and now directs ensembles from the violin more and more frequently, including the ACO and the St. Paul and the Irish chamber orchestras. Kuusisto was named the artistic director of the ACO Collective -- an educational offshoot of the Australian Chamber Orchestra -- in 2016, and he became the artistic director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra in 2021. He was the featured violinist in "4," a video about Vivaldi's Four Seasons, featuring winter landscapes from Finland's Lapland region. In 2020, Kuusisto was joined on a BIS album of Kalevi Aho's chamber music by Jaakko, Samuli Peltonen, and Sonja Fräki.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Artistas semelhantes
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Sibelius: Complete Symphonies
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Polytech Male Choir, Pekka Kuusisto, Leif Segerstam
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 6 de fev. de 2006
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Adès: Orchestral Works
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tomas Nuñez, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicholas Collon
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 7 de out. de 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tüür: Peregrinus ecstaticus - Le poids des vies non vécues - Noēsis
Christoffer Sundqvist, Pekka Kuusisto, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 27 de jan. de 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Glass: String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"
Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Symphonies - Lançado por PENTATONE em 6 de abr. de 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Violin Concerto in D minor / Karelia Suite / Belshazzar's Feast Suite (Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Pekka Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 1996
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Magnus Lindberg : Violin Concerto - Jubilees - Souvenir
Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Magnus Lindberg
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 27 de ago. de 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Salonen: Cello Concerto & Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Cello
Nicolas Altstaedt, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk, Pekka Kuusisto
Classical - Lançado por Alpha Classics em 18 de fev. de 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Occurrence: ISO Project, Vol. 3
Pekka Kuusisto, Mario Caroli, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Daníel Bjarnason, Thurídur Jónsdóttir
Classical - Lançado por Sono Luminus em 22 de jan. de 2021
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Symmetria Pario: Creation
Classical - Lançado por Yarlung Records em 3 de mar. de 2023
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Humoresques / 2 Serenades / Suite for Violin and String Orchestra / Swanwhite (Kuusisto)
Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 2006
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Glass: The Orchard (Version For Violin & Piano)
Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Symphonies - Lançado por PENTATONE em 7 de mai. de 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: The Essential Orchestral Favourites
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto, Leif Segerstam, Jean Sibelius
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 11 de nov. de 2014
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
First Light
Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Symphonies - Lançado por PENTATONE em 4 de jun. de 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
BACH, J. S.: Violin Concertos (Kuusisto)
Jaakko Kuusisto, Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 2001
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi, A.: 4 Seasons (The) / Violin Concerto in A Minor
Pekka Kuusisto, Virtuosi di Kuhmo
Concertos - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 1999
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MUSTONEN, O.: Triple Concerto / Petite Suite / Nonets Nos. 1 and 2 / Frogs Dancing on Water Lilies (Rousi)
Pekka Kuusisto, Martti Rousi, Jaakko Kuusisto, Lisa Batiashvili, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Olli Mustonen
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 2001
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Violin Concerto in D minor / Symphony No. 2
Pekka Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 2007
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Recharged by Nature
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Malin Broman, Pekka Kuusisto
Classical - Lançado por Alba Records em 27 de out. de 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: 5 Danses champetres / Pieces for Violin and Piano (Musical Soiree at Ainola) (Kuusisto, Karkkainen)
Pekka Kuusisto, Heini Karkkainen
Chamber Music - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 2004
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pictured Within "Birthday Variations for M.C.B" - Kuusisto: Symphony, Op. 39 (Live)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Pekka Kuusisto
Classical - Lançado por BIS em 1 de dez. de 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart : Concertos pour violon n°3-5
Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Olli Mustonen
Classical - Lançado por Ondine em 1 de jan. de 2003
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo