As part of the traditional evening of the European Union, which is held at the Ohrid Summer Festival, a concert of the Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen will be held tonight at 21,00 hr in the church of St. Sophia.
This great artist, a piano virtuoso, begins to learn piano at the age of only 5, and his teacher was the eminent pianist Ralph Gotoni. Just two years later, he begins to study composition with one of the most famous Finnish music authors Einojihani Rutaivaara.
Like his compatriot Esa Pekka Salonen, Oli Mustonen in the world is known for his top interpretations of the piano, while in his native Finland, he is widely regarded as a composer. Mustonen is also engaged as a conductor of the Helsinki Festival Orchestra who founded it himself. In addition, he is lead by the orchestra Tapiola Symphony and is the artistic director of the Musical Festival in the city of Turku. In 1991 he signed an exclusive contract with the publishing house Deca for which he recorded a CD with Preludes from Shostakovich and Alkan, a publication that was awarded by the Gramofon magazine for Best Instrumental Performance. Many of the recorded materials of Mustonen are issued by the Finnish company Ondin. As an instrumentalist he is particularly active at the concert podiums in Europe and Australia, and the composer Rodion Shchedrin dedicates to the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra no. 5
The publishing house “Shot” publishes the compositions by Mustonen, his turning point for piano, string quartet and contrabass from 1989 on the composer stage, after which he wrote Three Mysteries for Orchestra (2003), several concerts, solo piano works and more compositions for the cello. On the chamber scene he collaborates with cellists Steven Iserlis and Danijel Miller Shot, especially for performances of copyright works. His first symphony “Tours” is an order from the Helsinki Philharmonic, and immediately after the premiere of the work in 2012, the orchestra asks Mustonen to write another symphony piece.
