FORMER CONDUCTORS

PERTTI PEKKANEN

Pertti Pekkanen took over as the Principal Conductor of the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in 1989-91 just after having held the position of the Acting Professor of orchestral conducting at the Sibelius Academy (1987-88).

Pertti Pekkanen qualified as a conductor at the Sibelius Academy in 1972, having studied with Tauno Hannikainen, Simon Parmet and Jorma Panula, and in Austria with Hans Swarowsky. In 1972 he was one of the semi-finalists in the Karajan Competition in Berlin.

Pekkanen became known to the public as a conductor when he unexpectedly had to take over as a conductor at the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra's concert in 1973 and thereafter working as the Assistant Conductor of the HPO in 1973-1974. After his successful debut he was engaged as the Artistic Director of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra for over 12 years.

His long career as a conductor has taken Pertti Pekkanen to concert halls and opera houses not only in Finland but the world over. Spread before him on his music stand has been everything possible: operas and symphonies both early and contemporary, and often also works in lighter vein.

Pekkanen made his operatic debut in 1978, conducting the Turku Opera Association production of Mozart's Così fan tutte. Since then he has also conducted in Turku the operetta The Gypsy Baron (Johann Strauss) and the operas Martha (von Flotov), Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), Un ballo in maschera, Un giorno di regno and La Traviata (Verdi), Carmen and The Pearl Fishers (Bizet), Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach), L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti) and Ulstadius (Esa Pethman). Since 1984 he has also conducted at the Finnish National Opera (Carmen, Madetoja's The Ostrobothnians, the world premiere of Aho's Insect Life, Kokkonen's The Last Temptations). In 1999-2000 he conducted Verdi's La forza del destino at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. At Tampere Opera he has conducted The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), The Flying Dutchman (Wagner), Manon Lescaut (Puccini) and Kokkonen's The Last Temptations.

Pekkanen has recorded actively with Finnish orchestras mainly Finnish music. For example the record including Symphonies no. 1 and 2 by Einar Englund with the Turku Symphony Orchestra was chosen in its time as the Record of the Year.