In Wednesday’s (3/30) Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Graydon Royce interviews Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, who performs with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra this weekend and in September “formally begins his tenure as an SPCO artistic partner. He has performed many times in the Twin Cities, with the SPCO, the Minnesota Orchestra and as a Schubert Club recitalist.… He is regarded as a fine interpreter of music from his native land (particularly folk tunes) and also a champion of new music.” His program includes work by Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner, guitarist for the rock band the National, Haydn’s Symphony No. 88, and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, which Kuusisto will perform and conduct. “New music is essential, he said. ‘The easy answer is to say if people had not championed Beethoven, we’d not have Beethoven.’ … As artistic partner next September, he mentions such things as broadening the repertoire of work that can be performed without conductor … and finding talented collaborators for the SPCO and the Liquid Music program.… That gets the voluble Kuusisto back to talking about nontraditional venues.…’I’ve played electronic dance music and hip-hop—and with improvisational rock bands.… When people ask you to play, you should be ready to go in any situation.’ ”
Posted March 31, 2016
Photo of Pekka Kuusisto by Sonja Werner
