About this Artist
One of the brightest young instrumental talents to emerge from Finland today, JUHO POHJONEN has attracted great attention as one of the Nordic country’s most intriguing and talented pianists. Widely praised for his interpretations of music from Bach to Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pohjonen made his New York debut recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2004, and it was selected as one of the most memorable concert events heard in New York during that year by Anthony Tommasini, senior music critic of The New York Times.
Pohjonen has won numerous prizes in Finnish and international competitions, including First Prize at the 2004 Nordic Piano Competition in Nyborg, Denmark, First Prize at the International Young Artists 2000 Concerto Competition in Stockholm, and the Prokofiev Prize at the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition 2003. He was a prizewinner at the Helsinki International Maj Lind Piano Competition 2002.
Pohjonen has also given recitals in Dresden, Hamburg, Helsinki, London (Wigmore Hall), San Francisco, Vancouver, and Warsaw, and at the Lucerne Piano, Savonlinna, and Bergen Festivals. He has performed with orchestras including the Danish National, the Malmö, the Finnish Radio Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Lahti Symphony (with whom he toured Japan), the Bournemouth Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Season highlights include two Mozart recitals in Helsinki, which form part of a complete cycle of Mozart’s piano sonatas spanning three seasons, debut recitals in Alicante and at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival, and this debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Lionel Bringuier, performing Salonen’s Piano Concerto. He will also debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Hugh Wolff, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. He has been selected as one of 14 musicians to join the Two Residency Program for Outstanding Young Artists at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, participating in every area of CMS activity from 2009–2012.
Pohjonen’s studies began in 1989, when he entered the Junior Academy of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He has studied with Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu at the Sibelius Academy, where he completed his master’s degree in 2008. In addition, he has participated in several master classes of world-class pianists such as András Schiff, Leon Fleisher, Jacob Lateiner, and Barry Douglas.
He made his Walt Dsney Concert Hall debut in October 2007 with the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.