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
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Sibelius: Complete Symphonies
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Polytech Male Choir, Pekka Kuusisto, Leif Segerstam
Classical - Released by Ondine on Feb 6, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Adès: Orchestral Works
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tomas Nuñez, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicholas Collon
Classical - Released by Ondine on Oct 7, 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 - Released by Ondine on Jan 27, 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Glass: String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"
Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by PENTATONE on Apr 6, 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 - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Magnus Lindberg : Violin Concerto - Jubilees - Souvenir
Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Magnus Lindberg
Classical - Released by Ondine on Aug 27, 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 - Released by Alpha Classics on Feb 18, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Occurrence: ISO Project, Vol. 3
Pekka Kuusisto, Mario Caroli, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Daníel Bjarnason, Thurídur Jónsdóttir
Classical - Released by Sono Luminus on Jan 22, 2021
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Symmetria Pario: Creation
Classical - Released by Yarlung Records on Mar 3, 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 - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 2006
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Glass: The Orchard (Version For Violin & Piano)
Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by PENTATONE on May 7, 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 - Released by Ondine on Nov 11, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
First Light
Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by PentaTone on Jun 4, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
BACH, J. S.: Violin Concertos (Kuusisto)
Jaakko Kuusisto, Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta
Classical - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi, A.: 4 Seasons (The) / Violin Concerto in A Minor
Pekka Kuusisto, Virtuosi di Kuhmo
Concertos - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 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 - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Recharged by Nature
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Malin Broman, Pekka Kuusisto
Classical - Released by Alba Records on Oct 27, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Violin Concerto in D minor / Symphony No. 2
Pekka Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Classical - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: 5 Danses champetres / Pieces for Violin and Piano (Musical Soiree at Ainola) (Kuusisto, Karkkainen)
Pekka Kuusisto, Heini Karkkainen
Chamber Music - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart : Concertos pour violon n°3-5
Pekka Kuusisto, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Olli Mustonen
Classical - Released by Ondine on Jan 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
PAGANINI, N.: Duos (Kuusisto, Eskelinen)
Pekka Kuusisto, Ismo Eskelinen
Chamber Music - Released by Ondine on Sep 28, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo