Photo: Simon Larsson

Since his debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 1981, ROLAND PÖNTINEN has performed with the most important orchestras around the world. He has been invited to many prestigious festivals, including Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier and the Mozart Festival/New York. He has also worked with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Evgeny Svetlanov and Leif Segerstam, among others. Highlights include appearances with the Philharmonic Orchestras in Paris, London and Los Angeles, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh and appearances at the London Proms. Thanks to his insatiable musical appetite and an astonishing technique, he has acquired an extensive repertoire from Bach to Ligeti. His focus is on the “Golden Age” of piano literature from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century with composers such as Debussy, Busoni, Szymanowski and Rachmaninoff. Many composers, including Sven-Erik Bäck, Veli-Matti Puumala and Anders Hillborg, have dedicated works to him. As a sought-after chamber musician, he has worked with well-known artists such as Barbara Hendricks, Janine Jansen, Nobuko Imai and Martin Fröst.
Pöntinen has given concerts in New York (The Frick Collection), London (Wigmore Hall), Bogotá, Istanbul and Stockholm. This year’s concert is his fifth appearance at the “Rarities of Piano Music”. Recent releases include a recording of violin and piano music by Szymanowski, which joins his extensive discography of more than 100 recordings for BIS, c p o, Arte Nova, EMI, Philips and his own label Haddock, among others.
The artist is also active as a composer. His latest work, L’heure bleue for trombone and piano, premiered in 2021. Pöntinen is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2002 he received the Royal Medal Litteris et Artibus and in 2024 the “Musikaliska Akademiens Interpretpris”. He has been a juror at several international competitions, including the Busoni (Bolzano), Enescu (Bucharest), Casagrande and Rina Sala Gallo competitions.