Anssi Karttunen
The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen is one of the most renowned and versatile musicians in the classical music world today and enjoys a busy career as a soloist and chamber-music player. He performs on modern cello, classical and baroque cellos and on violoncello piccolo. Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, but has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and arranged a number of pieces for cello.
He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and his collaboration with composers has led him to give over 50 world premieres of works by composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun. He gave the world premieres of Magnus Lindberg's Cello Concerto in 1999 with Orchestre de Paris, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Mania in 2000 with Avanti!, Martin Matalon's Cello Concerto in 2001 with Orchestre National de France and Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto in 2004 with RAI Torino. The Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned a Concerto from Kaija Saariaho for Anssi Karttunen, which received its premiere in February 2007. The European premiere took place in March 2007 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, subsequent performances followed and are to follow with Swedish Radio, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and Orchestre de Paris amongst others.
Anssi Karttunen has worked with outstanding orchestras such as Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, London Sinfonietta, NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Modern, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Chamber Ochestra, Barcelona Opera Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, RAI Torino, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Avanti! and many others. He performs at major festivals in Europe including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Helsinki.
Anssi Karttunen's discography ranges from the complete Beethoven works for cello and fortepiano (on period instruments) and 20th-century works for solo cello to concertos with London Sinfonietta and Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. He is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organisation for the production and sales of CDs on the Internet. He appears on the first contemporary music CD-ROM: Prisma, on music of Kaija Saariaho. Deutsche Grammophon issued a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, orchestra and video, and Sony Classical released the Cello Concertos by Lindberg, Saariaho and Salonen on CD.
Anssi Karttunen was born in 1960. His teachers included Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula. Between 1994 and 1998, he was artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. He was also artistic director of the 1995 Helsinki Biennale and the Suvisoitto-Festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994-1997. From December 1999 to June 2005, Anssi Karttunen was principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. He has also appeared as conductor: in February 2000 he conducted Lindberg's Kraft in Antwerp on short notice and in January 2003 he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic Cello Ensemble. Anssi Karttunen plays a cello by Francesco Ruggeri.
