Paavali Jumppanen
piano

Biography

Paavali Jumppanen's New York debut in 2001 at the 92nd Street Y, presented by Young Concert Artists, garnered reviews of  “fresh and exciting” playing and “immense power and an extraordinary range of colors.”  Mr. Jumppanen also debuted in the YCA Series at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and performed in New York at the Morgan Library and at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall.  In 2002, he made his New York concerto debut with the New York Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz at Alice Tully Hall.

In January of 2007, Mr. Jumppanen embarked on a cycle of eight concerts over a period of two years at the Gardner Museum in Boston in which he performed the 32 Beethoven Sonatas. The Boston Globe reported how “the sheer, overflowing energy of his musicianship held one’s attention throughout this impressive performance and the result was a bracing and enjoyable reminder of how path breaking Beethoven’s music was.” The cycle was also performed in three different cities in Finland over the same period.  In connection with the series, Mr. Jumppanen gave lectures on the composer’s style and worked with students focusing on Beethoven’s music.  He continues his Beethoven project by beginning three more two-year concert cycles in three cities in Finland during the 2009-10 season.  Inspired by the classical era and Beethoven’s music in particular, he is currently in the process of preparing for publication a book of essays concerning the evolvement of the compositional style within the Sonata cycle by Beethoven.

In addition to the Sonatas, Mr. Jumppanen has been drawn to other repertoire by the composer as well. He has performed the complete Piano Concertos of the composer in a cycle with the Symphony Orchestra of the city of Kuopio; and during the 2003-04 season, he performed the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with violinist Corey Cerovsek at the Gardner.  In 2007, the Swiss recording label Claves released the complete Sonatas for Violin & Piano by Beethoven performed by Cerovsek and Jumppanen.  The recording received the Midem Prize of Cannes in February 2008 for best chamber music disc of the year.

Recent concert tours have included those in North America with the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra under Andras Ligeti, and with the Czech Symphony Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar.   He has also toured Australia as soloist with the Melbourne Symphony and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.  He has performed with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux at Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, the Rochester Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Basel Symphony, Columbus Symphony (GA), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony in Florida, the Orchestre de Cannes and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with which he has both recorded and given live performances in London.  Spring 2009 included a performance of Schoenberg’s piano concerto, in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic, as well as concerto appearances in Germany, the U.S. and Finland.  2009-10 appearances with orchestra will include cities in Sweden, Romania and Germany.

Winner of First Prize in Finland's national Maj Lind Competition in Helsinki at the age of nineteen, Mr. Jumppanen has since performed as soloist with all of Finland's orchestras and he frequently appears with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. His 2009-10 season includes performances at the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s celebrated Sibelius Festival.  During the 2010-11 season, he will premiere a piano concerto by the Finnish composer Olli Kortekangas with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.  That season will also include performances of the complete Piano Sonatas by Mozart in Finland as well as in the U.S.

Paavali Jumppanen frequently gives solo recitals and has performed numerous times in the prominent concert halls of Paris, New York, Vienna and London.  In addition to the continuation of the Beethoven Series and his long association with the Gardner Museum, his 2007-08 and 2008-09 recital seasons included engagements and residencies at Bucknell University and Cambridge in the U.S. and in Switzerland, Cyprus, Romania and Japan.  The 08-09 season included performances of Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus as part of a celebration of the composer’s centenary; he reprises the work in March 2010 at the Gardner.

Mr. Jumppanen has played at numerous international music festivals, including the La Roque d'Antheron Festival in France, Kitayushu Chamber Music Festival in Japan and at the Oslo Chamber Music Festival in Norway.  He is a regular visitor at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland and at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in the U.S.  He served a two-year post in 2004-05 as the Artistic Director for Finland's Lemi-Lappeenranta Music Festival.

Born in Espoo, Finland, Paavali Jumppanen began to play the piano at the age of five at the Espoo Music Institute, where he studied with Marja Huhtamaki and Katarina Nummi.  He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Margit Rahkonen, and has performed in master classes for Murray Perahia, Dimitry Bashkirov, Pascal Devoyon, and Eero Heinonen.  From 1997-2000 he worked with Krystian Zimerman at the Music Academy of Basel in Switzerland, where he was awarded the Soloist Diploma, the highest possible award.

Mr. Jumppanen frequently programs contemporary works, and regularly commissions works from Finnish composers. He has worked with Henri Dutilleux on the composer’s Piano Sonata.  Deutsche Grammophon released in 2005 his recording of  the complete Piano Sonatas of Pierre Boulez, which received prizes in France and Germany and earned the praise of London’s Guardian, which called it “the best recorded disc of Boulez’s piano music so far.”