Roland Pöntinen

Roland Pöntinen stands out among today’s Swedish pianists and composers for the breadth of his repertoire and his command of both solo and collaborative roles. He ranks as one of the most active recording artists of his generation, with more than eighty albums to his credit. Born in Stockholm in 1963, he took up the piano in early childhood; his father, an engineer who also played the instrument for personal pleasure, provided an immediate musical environment at home. By age five Pöntinen was already improvising at the keyboard and had begun violin lessons as well. His first teachers were Asta Schumacher, Vera Knorr, and Stanislav Knorr, after which he continued studies with Gunnar Hallhagen at both Adolf Frederik’s Music School and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He later received further guidance from Menahem Pressler and György Sebok before becoming a pupil of Elisabeth Leonskaja at Indiana University.

International attention arrived in 1981 when he performed Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time. In the same year he contributed to the album Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps; L'Oiseau de Feu; Petrouchka and completed two original chamber works, The Girl from Brazil for trumpet and piano and Camera for trombone and piano. His first solo recording, Roland Pöntinen Plays Russian Piano Music, appeared in 1984, initiating a long and prolific discography. As an accompanist he remains in constant demand, having performed and recorded extensively with Barbara Hendricks, Love Derwinger, Christian Lindberg, and numerous other artists.

In 2002 he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. At the Verbier Festival in 2007 he gave the world premiere of Shchedrin’s Romantic Duets alongside the composer. Two years later, in 2010, he introduced his own Danse Serpentine at Wigmore Hall together with clarinetist Martin Fröst and subsequently prepared an expanded version of the piece for chamber ensemble. Throughout the remainder of the decade he undertook tours of Japan, Taiwan, and Europe while also recording with the Artic Philharmonic Orchestra under Christian Lindberg. Since 2020 his releases have included Johannes Brahms: The Five Sonatas for Violin & Piano, Vol. 2, Russian Ballads: Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Kissin, and Szymanowski: Mythes- Music for Violin & Piano.