Pekka Kuusisto

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

Biography

With Pekka Kuusisto violin three years began to play. His first teacher was Géza Szilvay. Since 1985, he studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in Tuomas Haapanen. From 1992-1996 he studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University School of Music.

Kuusisto performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Australian Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He worked wi th the conductor Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Osmo Vänska, Paavo Berglund, Thomas Dausgaard and Leif Segerstam.

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

Kuusisto is also interested in other genres such as folk, jazz and electronic music. So he made jazz recordings with the trio Töykeät and plays progressive jazz. He experimented with electronic instruments and has performed together with the Finnish Electronics- jazz group RinneRadio and with the Norwegian noise duo Fe -mail.

Awards

Instrument

Pekka Kuusisto plays on a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini from 1752, which is provided to him by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.