Pietari Inkinen, now working internationally at the highest level, was appointed Music Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 2008. He has won unanimous praise from audiences and critics both for his performances on tour in New Zealand and for his recordings with the Orchestra on Naxos and in November 2010 heads the Orchestra on a major tour of European cities including Vienna, Lucerne, Geneva, Frankfurt and Hamburg with Hilary Hahn. Pietari Inkinen has also been invited to become the Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he assumes in September 2009.

As guest conductor, Inkinen has already worked with orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bayerische Rundfunk, WDR Cologne, Maggio Musicale, La Scala, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, CBSO and the Israel Philharmonic. In future seasons he will make his debut appearing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris and the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Inkinen enjoys successful collaborations with soloists such as Vadim Repin, Hilary Hahn, Pinchas Zukerman, Nikolaj Znaider, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Alexander Toradze, and Elisabeth Leonskaya and in the operatic pit, has conducted three productions at the Finnish National Opera including Eugene Onegin. He made a very successful debut at La Monnaie in Brussels conducting the Rite of Spring with the Pina Bausch Dance Company after which he was immediately re-invited.

In the studio, his recordings for Naxos with the New Zealand and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras including Rautavaara’s Manhattan Trilogy and the Brahms Violin Concerto have been greeted with critical acclaim. Gramophone said of the most recent release of music by Sibelius:

"Here’s further proof that Pietari Inkinen is a young conductor with confidence and talent to spare … the New Zealand SO respond with conspicuous poise and application for their Finnish chief (they really do sound like a rejuvenated band). Inkinen’s readings, too, show a real feeling for the idiom: phrases are shaped – and textures sifted – with fastidiousness and imagination, and he brings abundant recreative flair and cogent grip to the task in hand…"

His recording with the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic received outstanding reviews and was voted the BBC Music Magazine’s recording of the month and in August he returns to the studio to make a recording for EMI of Wagner arias and orchestral pieces with Simon O’Neil.

Inkinen is also an accomplished violinist and studied at the Cologne Music Academy with Zakhar Bron. He has appeared as soloist with many of the leading Finnish Orchestras including Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic with whom he performed the Sibelius Concerto in a concert that celebrated the 100th anniversary of their performance of the work and has play/directed orchestras including Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, RAI Torino, Norrkopings Symphony and Orchestre National de Lyon. He also enjoys chamber music collaborations and has appeared with the Inkinen Trio at the Wigmore Hall and St. John’s Smith Square.

Source: Pietari Inkinen

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