Jukka-Pekka Saraste

With the beginning of the 2006-2007 season, Jukka-Pekka Saraste took up the baton as Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1987 to 2001 he was Music director of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, creating an orchestra which was much admired by audiences and critics throughout the world. From 1994 to 2001 Saraste held the post of Music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and from 2002 to 2005 he was the Principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. From the season 2011-2012 he is Music director of the WDR Orchestra in Cologne. Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the exceptional conductors of his generation, demonstrating considerable musical depth and integrity. In addition to having brought the music of Finnish composers such as Kaja Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg and Esa-Pekka Salonen to greater prominence in the active concert repertoire, Mr. Saraste has also a strong affinity with the sound and style of late romantic music. Mr. Saraste’s recent guest engagements have included orchestras such as the Filarmonica delle Scala in Milan, the Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras in Munich, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of France, as well as significant North-American orchestras like the Boston and Chicago Symphony. His discography on Finlandia includes most notably the complete symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as works by Bártok, Dutilleux, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. On another Finnish label, Ondine, he has a wide selection of Finnish 20th century and contemporary composers such as Merikanto (Aarre), Rautavaara, Saariaho, and Lindberg. May 2011