Paavali Jumppanen
February 11, 2005
PASYDY Auditorium, Nicosia

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 and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Margit Rahkonen. He has performed in masterclasses for Murray Perahia, Dimitry Bashkirov, Pascal Devoyon, and Eero Heinonen and has already received notable prizes such as First Prize in the 2000 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and the Bruce Hungerford Memorial Prize. He is also the recipient of the first Miriam Horowitz Meckler Award, established by YCA alumna pianist Ruth Laredo.

From 1997-2000, Jumppanen worked with Krystian Zimerman at the Music Academy of Basel in Switzerland. In 2001, the Young Concert Artists Series presented Jumppanen's New York debut at the 92nd Street Y. The New York Times reported that his playing is fresh and exciting, and that he performs with immense power and an extraordinary range of colors. In addition to concerts in Washington D.C. and Boston he has performed in New York at the Morgan Library and at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall.

Recent performances include tours in Australia as soloist with the Melbourne Symphony and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, concerts in France, Italy, Germany and Norway with the Oslo Philharmonic, and appearances with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Lahti Symphony as well as performances across the United States.

Winner of First Prize in Finland's national Maj Lind Competition in Helsinki at the age of nineteen, Jumppanen has since performed as soloist with all of Finland's orchestras, including the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Helsinki Philharmonics and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he has just appeared in a return engagement as soloist in the Schoenberg Piano Concerto. He has also performed with the Belgrade Philharmonic and with Switzerland's Basel Symphony Orchestra, played at the Kuhmo, Loviisa and Sibelius festivals in Finland, the Kitayushu Chamber Music Festival in Japan and appeared at the famed La Roque d'Antheron Festival in France. Jumppanen is now serving as Artistic Director for Finland's Lemi-Lappeenranta Music Festival.

Jumppanen frequently programs contemporary works, and has commissioned pieces from young Finnish composers. Paavali Jumppanen is currently recording all of the Boulez Piano Sonatas for release on the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2005.