About this Artist
Violinist, conductor, and composer Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to repertoire. Kuusisto is Artistic Director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Co-Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from the 2023/24 season. He is also a Collaborative Partner of the San Francisco Symphony and Artistic Best Friend of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
In the 2024/25 season Kuusisto appears with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as soloist and conductor and play-conducts the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra during his two-week residency in March. He conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lahti Sinfonia, and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. He appears as soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra with Tabita Berglund; the NSO Dublin, Brussels Philharmonic, and Orchestre National de Lyon with André de Ridder; and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen as well as with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Recent highlights include appearances with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Berliner Philharmoniker, Helsinki Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, and Cincinnati and Boston symphony orchestras. He appeared as guest conductor with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestre de chambre de Paris.
Kuusisto is an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music and a gifted improviser, regularly engaging with people across the artistic spectrum. Uninhibited by conventional genre boundaries and noted for his innovative programming, he has recently collaborated with Hauschka and Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, pioneer of electronic music Brian Crabtree, eminent jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen, juggler Jay Gilligan, accordionist Dermot Dunne, and folk artist Sam Amidon, among others.
Pekka Kuusisto plays the Antonio Stradivari Golden Period “Scotta” violin (c. 1709), generously loaned by an anonymous patron.