Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto is artistic director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and principal guest conductor and artistic co-director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra beginning in the 2023–24 season. He is also a collaborative partner of the San Francisco Symphony, artistic partner with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and “artistic best friend” of the Bremen German Chamber Philharmonic.

An advocate of contemporary music, he recently premiered Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto with HR Sinfonieorchester, and later performed it with the San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonia, and Orchestre de Paris. He also premiered Thomas Adès’s Märchentänze with the Finnish Radio Symphony and later performed it with Barcelona Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, and Danish Radio Symphony. He recently premiered works by Sauli Zinovjev, Daníel Bjarnason, Anders Hillborg, Philip Venables, and Andrea Tarrodi.

As a soloist, Mr. Kuusisto debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic in the 2022–23 season; returns to the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Philharmonia, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony; and is in residence at the Basel Symphony. As a conductor, highlights include the Helsinki Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Philharmonia, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Bremen German Chamber Philharmonic.

Mr. Kuusisto’s recordings include Nico Muhly’s violin concerto, Shrink, for Pentatone; Thomas Adès’s Violin Concerto for Deutsche Grammophon; and Anders Hillborg’s Bach Materia and J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 for BIS. He plays the Antonio Stradivari Golden Period “Scotta” violin, generously loaned by a patron through Tarisio.

Feb 2023

Jesper Nordin is making a mark on the international music scene, with his music performed and broadcast over the globe. He has created a distinctive sound world that contains traces of traditional Swedish folk music, as well as rock and improvised music. His orchestral compositions have been performed by L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Scottish Symphony, Basel Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, and others. He has worked with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano, Daniel Harding, Pierre-André Valade, François-Xavier Roth, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, and Franck Ollu. 

Apart from his orchestral music, Mr. Nordin is also regularly performed by major contemporary music ensembles. His music has been programmed by ensemble recherche, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble l’Itinéraire, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, ASKO ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and many others. He has received commissions from major ensembles and institutions in Europe, including IRCAM, the French Ministry of Culture, Mairie de Paris, as well as several art councils and radio stations in Europe and North America. 

He has received many international awards, as well as Sweden’s foremost composition prize: the Royal Christ Johnson Award. His music has been played at several ISCM festivals, as well as Verbier Festival, ManiFeste, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Biennale Musique en Scéne, Ultima, Tokyo Summer Music Festival, Montréal New Music, Archipel, and others. 

After studies with Pär Lindgren, Bent Sørensen, and William Brunson at the Royal College in Stockholm, Mr. Nordin studied at IRCAM in Paris with Philippe Leroux and was later invited to serve as a visiting scholar at Stanford University for studies with Brian Ferneyhough and research at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. 

By working at different electroacoustic studios around the world, Mr. Nordin has made electronics a major part of his musical language both as a composer and as a performer with different ensembles and artists. He has also created the successful iOS apps Gestrument and ScaleGen, which are based on his own composition technique. They are used worldwide to create music in genres ranging from electronica and techno to improvisational jazz and contemporary classical music.

Feb 2023