Pietari Inkinen

Conductor Pietari Inkinen has occupied multiple leadership roles across Europe, New Zealand, and East Asia. His work encompasses both symphonic repertoire and opera, where he has developed particular expertise in Wagner.

Born on April 29, 1980, in the southeastern Finnish city of Kouvola, Inkinen began violin and piano lessons at age four and performed in a rock band during his youth. He studied at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, receiving a violin diploma in 2003 and a conducting diploma in 2005. Although recognized chiefly for his podium work, he continues to perform on violin; he pursued advanced instrumental training at the Hochschule für Musik Köln under Zakhar Bron and leads the Inkinen Trio.

His conducting career opened in 2007 when he was named music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, becoming only the second holder of that post after James Judd. His first recording, made with that orchestra for Naxos, presented Sibelius’ Scènes historiques; a complete Sibelius symphony cycle with the same ensemble followed on the same label.

While most of Inkinen’s engagements have occurred abroad, he has led performances at the Finnish National Opera. As an opera conductor he is known for his Wagner interpretations, directing the full Ring Cycle at Opera Australia in 2013 and again at the Bayreuth Festival in 2023. Additional opera-house appearances include the Semperoper in Dresden, the Staatsoper in Berlin, and La Monnaie in Brussels. After concluding his New Zealand tenure in 2015—he retained the title of Honorary Conductor—he served as chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo from 2015 to 2023. In Europe he held the chief conductor post with the Prague Symphony Orchestra between 2015 and 2020 and assumed the same position with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern in 2017, a contract set to end in 2025. In 2022 he became chief conductor and music director of the KBS Symphony in Seoul. Guest appearances have included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic. Since 2019 he has recorded regularly with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, releasing the Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 of Dvořák in 2024.