Pekka Kuusisto
Overview
 
Pekka Kuusisto is a Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 classical and jazz violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist.

Pekka Kuusisto began studying the violin at the age of three. His first violin teacher was Geza Szilvay
Géza Szilvay
Géza Szilvay is a Finnish violin pedagogue, founder and conductor of the Helsinki Strings and principal of the East Helsinki Music Institute....

 at the East Helsinki Music Institute. In 1983 he enrolled in the Sibelius Academy
Sibelius Academy
The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...

 in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

. He began to study there with Tuomas Haapanen in 1985. He studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 School of Music from 1992 to 1996.

In 1995, Pekka Kuusisto became the first Finn to win the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition
International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition
The International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, named after Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, is a competition for violinists up to age 30. It is held every five years in Helsinki and is considered to be one of the top 3 most appreciated violin competitions in the world. The first competition...

 and was also awarded a special prize for the best performance of Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...

' violin concerto
Violin Concerto (Sibelius)
The Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, was written by Jean Sibelius in 1904.-History:Sibelius originally dedicated the concerto to the noted violinist Willy Burmester, who promised to play the concerto in Berlin...

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