Ralf Gothóni

Finnish-German pianist, conductor, composer and pedagogue Ralf Gothóni has a many-sided worldwide career. His tight concert schedule has included major festivals (Berlin, Edinburgh, Salzburg, La Roque d’Anthéron, Prades, Prague, The Proms, Ravinia, Seoul etc.), orchestras (Bayerischer Rundfunk, Berlin and Warsaw philharmonics, Detroit, Chicago and Toronto Symphonies etc.) and recording studios with more than 100 recordings. With the Korean Chamber Orchestra he just ended in Seoul a huge Mozart project by performing and recording all his 46 symphonies. In his youth Gothóni performed with 38 singers all Schubert’s songs in 15 long concerts and in the 1990ies he presented together with Tapiola Sinfonietta all 16 Haydn keyboard concertos during one weekend.
Since 2007 as arthritis stopped his recitalist career Gothóni appears regularly both as a soloist and conductor, conducting often from the keyboard. He has premiered more than a dozen piano concertos (Tavener, Sallinen, Rautavaara, Curtis-Smith etc) and as a conductor he worked a.o. as the chief conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra in 2001-2010 and as the musical director of Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle. As chamber musician he performs regularly at the important festivals.
Gothóni has been professor for chamber music in 7 European universities, among them Madrid, Hamburg and Berlin. He also gives master classes worldwide and is invited as juror at the major piano competitions.
Mr Gothóni’s repertoire as composer includes concertos, one full opera, 3 chamber operas, chamber music and songs.
In the 80's, during Gothóni's artistic directorship, the Savonlinna Opera Festival expanded to its format of today. In the 90-ties he was the initiator and artistic director of "The Forbidden City Music Festival" in Beijing and during 2007-21 he directed "Musical Bridges" between Cairo, Alexandria, Baku, Izmir, Amman, Shanghai and Savonlinna International Music Academy where he is the Artistic Chairman. He has also been successful as a writer of three books with essays about musical phenomenology.
Mr Gothóni has been honoured with many awards, including the American Gilmore Artist Award, the Order of "Pro Finlandia“ and the Schubert Medal of Austrian Ministry for Culture. In 2012 he was honoured in Madrid for his artistic and pedagogic activities by Sofia, the Queen of Spain. In 2019 Gothóni was awarded with the title Dr.h.c by Estonian Academy for Arts and in 2022 the Guildhall school of music, London nominated him with “International Chair of Keyboard chamber music”.