Ralf Gothóni
Ralf Gothóni launched his career at the tender of age of 15 with a sensation debut in 1967. Since that time he has been considered a tremendously versatile musician: a pianist, conductor, chamber musician, composer, musicologist and educator. In his role of a pianist and conductor he has appeared all over the world in the most renowned concert halls, performed during prestigious festivals including in Salzburg, Berlin, Prague, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, La Roque d’Antheron, Ravinia and Tanglewood. He has performed with the Berlin Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, symphonic orchestras from Chicago, Detroit and Toronto. For the last five years Ralf Gothóni has been the principal guest conductor of the Turku Philharmonic; until 1996 the artistic director of the Forbidden City Music Festival in Beijing, principal conductor of Finlandia Sinfonietta (1989-94) the first artistic director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival (1984-87).
He has recorded about 80 CDs for numerous labels including BIS, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Ondine. He is artistic director of the Institute of Chamber Music in Savonlinna, professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and until May 2000 also at the Royal College of Music in London. He is also an active composer, he has presented his achievements in musicology in book form in The Creative Moment (ed. Ajatus 1998) and Does the moon turn?(2001).