Petri Kumela

• country:Finland
• style(s):Contemporary, Classical Music
• label:not signed
• type:Solo
• artist posted by:Kumela, Petri

Line up

• Petri Kumela (guitar)

Links

• Petri Kumela Website

Petri Kumela, Finland’s most versatile and sought-after classical guitarist, is equally at home with period instruments as in working with contemporary composers. He is also one of the Finnish guitarists best known on the international scene, with a reputation for originality and creativity, whether he is giving a recital in Calcutta or a school concert in Japan, or motorising guitars in Mexico.

Winner of the first prize in the international Scandinavian Guitar Festival and Stafford Classical Guitar Recital competitions, Petri Kumela has appeared outside Finland in many European countries, South America, the United States, Russia, Japan, India and Bhutan, at venues that have ranged from intimate home concerts to Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre and the Kitara Hall in Sapporo.

Petri Kumela is a frequent guest at numerous festivals and concert series and he has been the soloist with f.ex. the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfónica de Galicia, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Estonian National Orchestra, Finnish Baroque Orchestra and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra with conductors like Ann-Maria Helsing, Olari Elts, Juha Kangas, Rumon Gamba, Hannu Lintu, Yasuo Shinozaki, Dalia Stasevska, Dima Slobodeniouk and John Storgårds. He is also an extremely active chamber musician, appearing with the Avanti!, Uusinta, defun, Insomnio, Tampere Raw and many other ensembles and musicians.

An artist with a special commitment to contemporary music, Petri Kumela has premiered ten guitar concertos and numerous solo and chamber works both in Finland and abroad by f.ex. Kalevi Aho, Antti Auvinen, Christian Winther Christensen, Sebastian Hilli, Jesper Nordin, José-María Sánchez-Verdú, Poul Ruders, Lotta Wennäkoski and Pehr Henrik Nordgren. Besides standard classical guitar Kumela performs also with electronics, micro-tonal- and electric guitar often in experimental and avant-garde settings.

Kumela was the artistic director for the chamber music series of the Nordic Music Days 2013 and the festival Sound of Sipoo started under his direction in Sipoo in 2017. He is also the co-curator for the acclaimed concert series Hietsu is Happening! and Classical Hietsu in Helsinki.

The ten recordings released so far by Petri Kumela have all won high critical acclaim and various nominations. “Change is gonna come” (2010) was chosen by both the Helsingin Sanomat and the American Record Guide as critic ́s choices of the year and his recording of the music by Fernando Sor with a period guitar was elected by the prestigious Classical Guitar Magazine as one of the ten best recordings of 2018.

His latest album ”Small Creatures – A Musical Bestiary” (2020) sensationally won both of the annual prizes for classical recordings in Finland: the industry´s EMMA-prize and the Recording of the Year by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).

Contact Artist