Lauded for his “impeccable technique” (The Washington Post) and “elegant musicianship” (The New York Times), pianist Juho Pohjonen is in demand internationally as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber performer. An ardent exponent of Scandinavian music, Pohjonen’s growing discography offers a showcase of music by Finnish compatriots such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kaija Saariaho and Jean Sibelius.
The “fast rising Finnish star” has garnered acclaim as a “delightfully unassuming but bewitching soloist” (The Guardian) in recent engagements with the German Radio Philharmonic, Taiwan, BBC, and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; the Symphonies of San Francisco, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Colorado; National Arts Centre Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the Mostly Mozart Festival.
He recently performed Sauli Zinovjev’s Piano Concerto with the Lahti Symphony and Daniel Bjarnason’s concerto, Processions with the Helsinki Philharmonic, both with Bjarnason at the podium. Pohjonen has also collaborated with today’s foremost conductors, including Marin Alsop, Lionel Bringuier, Marek Janowski, Fabien Gabel, Kirill Karabits, Osmo Vänskä, Pietari Inkinen, Stefan Asbury, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Markus Stenz, and Pinchas Zukerman.
Highlights of the 2024-2025 season include recitals and chamber performances presented by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Washington University in St. Louis, Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Additionally, Pohjonen performs Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Philharmonia Orchestra, under the baton of Vinay Parameswaran, and makes an appearance at Wigmore Hall alongside violinist Stephan Waarts and cellist Jonathan Swensen. Pohjonen has performed in recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Steinway Society in San Jose, and in San Francisco, La Jolla, Philadelphia, Detroit, Savannah, and Vancouver. He made his London debut at Wigmore Hall, and has played recitals throughout Europe in Antwerp, Hamburg, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. Following a program at the 92nd Street Y in New York featuring Salonen’s Dichotomie, the New York Times commented, “[Pohjonen] played it like a master.”
Pohjonen is an alumnus of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and enjoys an ongoing relationship with the organization. With CMS, he has performed at Alice Tully Hall, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Wolf Trap. He appears several times on CMS’s 2024-2025 season, including a solo recital featuring the world premiere of Prélude oublié for Piano by Finnish composer Jyrki Linjama, commissioned by Pohjonen. He is also featured on CMS’s Sonic Spectrum contemporary music series, performing the world premiere of a new work for flute, percussion, and piano by Elise Arancio as well as works by Alejandro Viñao and Viet Cuong.
Pohjonen has played alongside the Escher and Calidore String Quartets, and has collaborated in a program at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He has played festivals in Lucerne, Finland, Norway, and Germany; at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival; the Marlboro Music Festival; and ChamberFest Cleveland.
Pohjonen’s growing discography includes the recently released album Visionaries of the Keyboard (Orchid 2024), featuring works by Rameau and Scriabin and showcasing Pohjonen's ability to navigate both baroque elegance and modernist mysticism. Previous recordings include The Dvořák Album, recorded with Jan Vogler and the Moritzburg Festival (Sony Classical 2022); cello works (Inbal Segev) of Chopin, Grieg and Schumann (AVIE 2018); Bach: 6 Sonatas for Violin (Nicolas Dautricourt) and Piano (La Dolce Volta 2018); Music@Menlo Live: Maps and Legends (2010); and Plateaux, works by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, recorded with Ed Spanjaard and the Danish National Symphony. Pohjonen is a founding member of the Sibelius Piano Trio, who released “a gorgeous debut” (Stereophile) in honor of Finland’s 1917 centennial of independence (Yarlung Records 2016).
Pohjonen earned a master’s degree from Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was selected by Sir András Schiff as the winner of the 2009 Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship. In 2019, Pohjonen launched MyPianist, an AI-based app that provides interactive piano accompaniment. (https://mypianist.app).
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