Pietari Inkinen

Conductor Pietari Inkinen has held a variety of posts in Europe, New Zealand, and East Asia. He conducts both orchestral music and opera; in the latter field, he is a specialist in the music of Wagner. Inkinen was born on April 29, 1980, in Kouvola in southeastern Finland. He took up violin and piano at age four. In his early years, he played in a rock band. Inkinen attended the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, earning diplomas in violin (in 2003) and conducting (in 2005). Although he is known primarily as a conductor, Inkinen remains active as a violinist. He went on for further studies on the instrument at the Hochschule für Musik Köln in Germany with Zakhar Bron and is the leader of his own chamber group, the Inkinen Trio. Inkinen's conducting career began with his appointment as music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 2007; he was only the second person to hold that title with the orchestra, succeeding conductor James Judd. His recording debut came with that ensemble on the Naxos label, in an album featuring Sibelius' Scènes historiques. That was followed by a complete cycle of the Sibelius symphonies with the New Zealand Symphony on Naxos. Inkinen's conducting activities have taken place mostly outside his home country, although he has conducted the Finnish National Opera. As an opera conductor, he is noted for his interpretations of Wagner, having conducted the complete Ring Cycle operas at Opera Australia in 2013 and the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in 2023. Inkinen has also appeared as a guest at the Semperoper in Dresden, the Staatsoper in Berlin, and La Monnaie in Brussels, among other major houses. After leaving the New Zealand Symphony in 2015 (he stayed on as Honorary Conductor), he served as chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo from 2015 to 2023. In Europe, he was chief conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2020 and of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern beginning in 2017; his tenure at the latter was scheduled to conclude in 2025. In 2022, Inkinen became chief conductor and music director of the KBS Symphony in Seoul, South Korea. He has served as a guest conductor with leading ensembles on multiple continents, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands, the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, Germany, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic. With the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Inkinen has recorded frequently since 2019, issuing an album featuring the Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 of Dvořák in 2024. ~ James Manheim, Rovi