Pekka Kuusisto

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto has pursued a career and stage presence designed to link Finland’s lively jazz, electronic, and folk communities with its renowned classical training tradition.

Born in Espoo on October 7, 1976, he started violin lessons at age three and entered the Sibelius Academy at nine, where Tuomas Haapanen served as his main instructor. Between 1992 and 1996 he continued his studies at Indiana University with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss. By the close of that period he had already distinguished himself, capturing first prize at the 1995 International Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki. Although he recorded the Sibelius violin concerto for Ondine’s Absolute Sibelius project, his repertoire has centered on twentieth- and twenty-first-century scores ranging from Bartók to Rautavaara.

Drawing on the growing presence of contemporary Scandinavian works in concert halls, Kuusisto has furthered that trend through daring interpretations shaped by his activities beyond the classical sphere. He performs jazz with the trio Töykeät and with forward-looking ensembles such as Finland’s RinneRadio, and he has explored electronic idioms stretching from hip-hop to noise music. An admirer of John Zorn, he observed to Erica Jeal of The 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 directs the Finnish folk collective Luomu Players and has appeared on Finnish rock and pop recordings.

His orchestral engagements encompass the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the Alabama and Oregon symphony orchestras, the City of Birmingham and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Together with his brother Jaakko he serves as artistic director of the Lake Tuusula Chamber Music Festival. From 2006 to 2013 he held an artist-in-residence post with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and has since taken an increasing role leading ensembles from the violin, among them the ACO, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. In 2016 he was appointed artistic director of the ACO Collective, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s educational arm, and in 2021 he assumed the same position with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. He appeared as featured violinist in the video “4,” which pairs Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with winter imagery filmed in Finland’s Lapland region. On a 2020 BIS recording devoted to Kalevi Aho’s chamber music, he performed alongside Jaakko, Samuli Peltonen, and Sonja Fräki.