Pekka Kuusisto (born 7 October 1976 in Espoo) is a Finnish musician.

Pekka Kuusisto began studying the violin at the age of three. His first violin teacher was Geza Szilvay at the East Helsinki Music Institute. In 1983 he enrolled in the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He began to study there with Tuomas Haapanen in 1985. He studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University School of Music from 1992 to 1997.

In 1995, Pekka Kuusisto became the first Finn to win the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition and was also awarded a special prize for the best performance of Jean Sibelius’ violin concerto. He has won other prizes, concertised widely and recorded works for the Ondine label. Pekka Kuusisto plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin (1752) lent by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Pekka Kuusisto is constantly working with musicians from many different backgrounds. He regularly performs with electronics, giving concerts consisting of mostly improvised material. During the past few years, he has frequently performed a solo recital programme consisting of the Partita in d minor by Johann Sebastian Bach and electronic improvisations on funeral chorales. The traditional music of Finland serves as a source of inspiration for Kuusisto, and his approach to the violin has changed substantially since he became more involved with folk music and its performers. He has been a guest performer with groups such as Nightwish, Rinneradio, Don Johnson Big Band, The National and Salsa Dura.

Pekka Kuusisto also writes music, but mostly for small ensembles where he is one of the performers. With accordionist Johanna Juhola, he wrote half of the album “Max Höjd” and half of the music for “Auf Wiedersehen Finnland”, a documentary film by Virpi Suutari about Second World War events in Finnish Lapland. He composed the music for the album “Kiestinki”, with lyrics written by Paula Vesala. Currently, Pekka Kuusisto is working on music for a collaboration between himself, Jaakko Kuusisto and the vocal ensemble Rajaton, themed on climate change.

In classical circles, Pekka Kuusisto is internationally renowned both as soloist and director and is recognised for his fresh approach to the repertoire. A strong advocate of new music, Pekka regularly collaborates with contemporary composers and in the 2012/13 season, he gave the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Violin Concerto, written for him and commissioned by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent highlights have included concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Chamber, Toronto Symphony and Washington’s National Symphony orchestras, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Konzerthausorchester Berlin.

In 2013/14, Pekka joins frequent collaborators Britten Sinfonia in performances of four Britten works as part of the composer’s centenary celebrations, with choreography by the Richard Alston Dance Company. He also returns to the Cincinnati Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras.

Pekka Kuusisto seeks to engage with people across the artistic spectrum, working on new interpretations of existing repertoire alongside original works. He regularly directs ensembles from the violin, including the Australian, London, Irish, Mahler and The Saint Paul chamber orchestras, as well as the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Recent recital partners include Iiro Rantala, Anne Sofie von Otter, Angela Hewitt, Kimmo Pohjonen and Nicolas Altstaedt. He gave the world premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Sonata for Violin and Piano with the composer at the Wigmore Hall in spring 2013, and later this year he tours Europe with his traditional music group, The Luomu Players.

‘Our Festival’, of which Pekka is Artistic Director, provides another opportunity for him to bring a number of artforms together in a single performance. Based in Sibelius’ home town, Järvenpää, it was selected as Festival of the Year by Finland Festivals in 2011. In 2013, Pekka gave the world premiere of an electronic work inspired by Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto, which he co-wrote with Tuomas Norvio. He also gave duo performances with juggler Jay Gilligan, joined the vocal group Rajaton and performed with Finnish schlager legend Paula Koivuniemi.

Pekka Kuusisto has enjoyed a number of prestigious residencies, including at the Aldeburgh Festival, the Concertgebouw’s Robeco Zomerconcerten, and as a ‘Junge Wilde’ artist at the Konzerthaus Dortmund. He oversaw the programming for the 2011 Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival and he continues to work regularly with Tapiola Sinfonietta, where he was formerly Artistic Partner (2006-2013).

Kuusisto was featured in the film 4 as the soloist of the winter quarter of a quartet of young musicians from around the world playing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Rainer Kussmaul, violin, was born in Mannheim as a son of a musical family, received his first violin lessons from his father and then studied with Riccardo Odnoposoff. He performs worldwide as a soloist and as a member of the Stuttgart Piano Trio, formed in 1968. Rainer Kussmaul was a prize-holder at numerous international violin competitions. Between his concert tours with renowned orchestras and conductors, he records for radio, television and compact disc.

Rainer Kussmaul is also a successful teacher. He gives master classes in many countries and has been director of the violin class at the Carl Flesch Academy in Baden-Baden since 1987. He has been a professor at the Freiburg Music Conservatory since 1977, with the exception of the period from 1993 to 1998 when he was given leave of absence to enable him to take up the position of 1st Concert Master of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yury Kunets (*1957) ist ein russischer Komponist, Musiker und Produzent.

Seine ersten Kompositionen verfasste Yury Kunets noch in seiner Schulzeit. Diese Tätigkeit setzte er fort und schrieb in den 80er Jahren Songs für die Band ›Impulse Five‹. Ab 2004 beteiligte sich Kunets als Produzent an einigen Musikprojekten im russischen Fernsehen. Zusammen mit dem Autor und Regisseur Maxim Kapitanowsky schuf Kunets zwei Musikfilme, die beide von D. Zawilgelsky betreut wurden: Blame it all on the Beatles (für den staatlichen Sender ›Rossija‹) und Don’t Shoot The Musicians (2007). In Zusammenarbeit mit Michail Tanich und Kirill Krastoshewsky komponierte er Songs für viele Künstler, darunter für die legendäre Band ›Pesnyary‹, Michail Mien und viele andere.

2011 konnte Kunets ein umfangreiches Repertoire von Instrumentalstücken zur Aufnahme und Veröffentlichung vorweisen. In Zusammenarbeit mit dem amerikanischen Dirigenten Lee Holdridge (zwei Grammys und acht Emmys) und dem britischen Musikproduzenten Christopher Alder (zehn Grammys) begann Kunets mit der Aufnahme mehrerer Alben mit symphonischen Werken

In seinen Kompositionen kombiniert Kunets Elemente der klassischen Musik, des Jazz und der Popmusik miteinander. Die Melodik und das romantische Gepräge seiner symphonischen Werke spiegeln das Wesen des Komponisten wider. Kunets über Renaissance: »Diese Musik hat einen sehr lyrischen Charakter; damit versuche ich, meine Sicht auf das Leben und meine Empfindungen zu vermitteln. Sie ist sozusagen das Ergebnis meiner philosophischen Überlegungen, kleine Geschichten über unsere von der Natur umgebene Existenz, die ihrerseits eng mit unserem emotionalen Sein verbunden ist«

Diskografie

Internationally celebrated as both a soloist and conductor, Florian Krumpöck has more than proven his outstanding capability on the international concert scene. Appointed as one of the youngest music directors in German history in 2011, Krumpöck characteristically masters enormous amounts of opera and concert literature as well as piano repertoire, and particularly enthrals his audiences with his double function as a soloist and conductor.

The son of a cellist and an art historian, Krumpöck can count Rudolf Buchbinder and Gerhard Oppitz among his teachers, as well as one of the most distinguished female pianists of our time, Elisabeth Leonskaja. Pronounced by none other than Daniel Barenboim after hearing him play as being a “simply wonderful pianist”, Krumpöck was well on the way to a promising international career.

Receiving outstanding reviews for his debut in the Zurich Tonhalle with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev, Krumpöck was subsequently invited to play at other major European music centres such as Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Zurich, as well as further afield in Israel, the USA, China and South Korea. Critically acclaimed solo recitals at international festivals such as the SalzburgFestival, the Salzburg EasterFestival, the BregenzFestival, the Bad Kissingen Summer Music Festival, the Bachfest in Leipzig, the Mecklenburg–Vorpommern Music Festival and the ViennaKlangbogen, all helped to cement his future career as a soloist. Furthermore, at an early stage Sir Peter Ustinov had presented the young musician to a wider audience.

Florian Krumpöck makes regular appearances as a soloist at great concert halls such as Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Herkulessaal in Munich, and the Meistersingerhalle in Nürnberg. Other appearances include the great concert hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. In the course of his career, he has played several complete cycles of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas. Upon the advice of his mentor Daniel Barenboim, Krumpöck expanded his repertoire to include numerous symphonic works and operas and began to work increasingly on conducting.

In 2006 Krumpöck gained the opportunity to stand in at the Jerusalem Symphony for the first time as a conductor. The performance was an international sensation and he was subsequently appointed principal conductor of the Baden Sinfonietta.

2007 saw Krumpöck conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra with great success as a part of a New Year’s concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington. He was then employed by the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, where he notably worked with the former director of the Vienna Burgtheater, Matthias Hartmann.

Krumpöck was appointed in 2011 as music director for concerts and opera at the Rostock Volkstheater and as principal conductor of the Norddeutsche Philharmonie. In this role, and as one of the youngest music directors in Germany, Krumpöck directed numerous music theatre premieres and symphony concerts which included a Mahler cycle, a Beethoven marathon which involved the nine symphonies being played on four consecutive days, and several other concerts as both soloist and conductor.

2012 saw Krumpöck lead the Lichtenstein Symphony Orchestra as artistic director and principal conductor. In the following three years he was the driving force behind the highly successful artistic reorganisation of the orchestra, which thus developed into the most important cultural ambassador for the country. Collaborations with some of the most important soloists of our time marked the artistic ascent of the orchestra, as did a concert series that was completely sold out to subscribers alone.

Despite the Norddeutsche Philharmonie requesting to extend Krumpöck’s contract at the end of his tenure, he opted instead for purely freelance work. This has included his debut at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen conducting the Royal Danish Orchestra, with two inaugural open-air concerts and a production of Der Rosenkavalier, produced by Marco Arturo Marelli.

Florian Krumpöck has been a guest conductor for many of the most celebrated orchestras in the world, conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in the golden hall of the Vienna Musikverein, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Copenhagen Royal Danish Orchestra, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the Linz Bruckner Orchestra, the Staatskapelle of Halle, the Nürnberg Staatsphilharmonie,the philharmonic orchestras of Kiel, Würzburg, Hagen, Oldenburg, Bremerhaven, Neubrandenburg and Trier, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Chamber Orchestra, and numerous orchestras in China and South Korea. In 2012 he was also the premiere conductor for Rigoletto at the opera festival in Gars am Kamp, Austria.

Last season, in guest appearances, Florian Krumpöck conducted the Norddeutsche Philharmonie in the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg and the Lichtenstein Symphony Orchestra in a live concert broadcast by Bavarian Radio in Munich. He also conducted the traditional New Year’s concert at the Salzburg Festspielhaus, with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

The foundation for what was to become a close co-operation with UNIVERSAL was laid when he won critical acclaim at the Klassik am Dom Gala in July 2015, with soloists Angelika Kirchschlager and Michael Schade, conducting the Linz Bruckner Orchestra.
He has formed a close working relationship with Angelika Kirchschlager, the two of whom perform many lieder recitals together.
Numerous CD recordings as a pianist and conductor (the most recent being Dvořák’s Piano Concerto with the Nürnberg Staatsphilharmonie under Markus Bosch, chamber music by Karl Weigl with David Frühwirth and Benedict Klöckner, and Schubert’s Winterreise with Wolfgang Bankl), radio broadcasts and several television features, all document the varied work of the artist. For the current Blüthner concert series in Vienna, he is for the sixth time taking charge of music management. Since summer 2015, Florian Krumpöck has been the director of Kultur.Sommer.Semmering.

Vienna-based violinist Orsolya Korcsolan is one of the most versatile classical musicians of her generation. Discovered at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and supported throughout her early carrier by Sir George Solti, praised by TIME magazine journalist Jeremy Caplan, the Juilliard alumna won numerous awards in New York before settling in the heart of the European music world.  Her technical command and warm, compelling sound, combined with her spirit and elegant stage presence, have captured audiences around the word since her debut in New York`s Paul Hall.

Orsolya Korcsolán was born and raised in Budapest, graduated at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and continued her studies with Sir Solti’s recommendation at The Juilliard School in New York where she studied with the late Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman and holds a Master of Music Degree.

In the past years she has been working as concertmaster under conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, and Michael Tilson Thomas and has appeared across Asia in chamber music series with the soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

An avid advocate of Jewish classical music Ms. Korcsolan serves as traveling ambassador of the Budapest Jewish Summer Festival, one of Europe’s foremost cultural events that attracts over a million visitors from the region each year. She has been representing the festival not only throughout Hungary but also in Austria, Canada and the United States.

Ms Korcsolan is a member of the prestigious New York based ensemble ‘Shir Amy’, Artistic Director of ‘Missing pieces’, a pioneering concerts series presenting silenced composers at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest, and President of the newly established Pro Arte Judaica Foundation.

Orsolya Korcsolán performs on a violin crafted by Johannes Rombach of Vienna in
2004.

Der in Bozen geborene Organist und Cembalist Peter Kofler erhielt seine erste musikalische Ausbildung am dortigen Konservatorium Claudio Monteverdi. In München studierte er Orgel und Kirchenmusik bei Harald Feller sowie Cembalo bei Christine Schornsheim.

Schon während seiner Studienzeit erhielt er einen Lehrauftrag als Korrepetitor an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater München und wurde Assistent von Hansjörg Albrecht beim Münchner Bachchor.

Peter Kofler konzertiert mit namhaften Ensembles wie dem Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, den Münchner Philharmonikern und dem Chamber Orchestra of Europe und arbeitet mit Dirigenten wie Mariss Jansons, Krzysztof Penderecki, Heinz Holliger, Thomas Hengelbrock, Charles Dutoit und Peter Schreier zusammen. Zu seinen Kammermusikpartnern zählen u. a. Ramon Ortega Quero, Gabor Tarkövi und Christine Schornsheim. Regelmäßig gastiert Peter Kofler als Organist und Cembalist bei internationalen Musikfestivals. CD- und Rundfunkproduktionen (ZDF, BR, RAI, Sony Classical, Tudor, Oehmsclassics, Solo Musica) runden seine Künstlertätigkeit ab.

Für den ARD-Musikwettbewerb 2007 wurde Peter Kofler als offizieller Cembalobegleiter eingeladen. Von der Stiftung Bücher-Dieckmeyer erhielt er den Förderpreis zur Pflege der Kirchenmusik in Bayern.

Seit August 2008 ist Peter Kofler Organist an der Jesuiten- und Hofkirche St. Michael in München tätig. Zudem ist er künstlerischer Leiter des internationalen Orgelfestivals Münchner Orgelherbst.

Im Mai 2010 hat Peter Kofler seine erste Solo-CD mit Johann Sebastian Bachs Kunst der Fuge beim Label Raumklang eingespielt. Im Oktober 2010 wird er seine Tätigkeit als Lehrbeauftragter im Fach Chorleitung an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater in München beginnen.