the Finnish pianist Henri Sigfridsson (born 1974, Turku, Finland) has established himself as one of the most sought after soloist and chamber musician in the European concert scene.
As a soloist Sigfridsson has played with the leading Finnish orchestras and numerous orchestras throughout the world, including the MDR Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National Lorraine Metz, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonics, Musica Viva Moscow, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, the "Junge Deutsche Philharmonie", Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, State Philharmonic Orchestras of Izmir and Istanbul, Bucheon and Wonju Philharmonic Orchestras, the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, and many others, under the baton of prestigious conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Sir Neville Marriner, Tugan Sokhiev, Juraj Valcuha, Dorian Wilson, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Daniel Raiskin, Young-Min Park, Lior Shambadal, Georg Alexander Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alexander Lazarev, Beat Furrer, Andreas Delfs, Christoph Poppen, Dennis Russel Davies, Lawrence Foster, Howard Shelley, Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach, Thomas Henglbrock, Jacques Mercier, Jun-Ichi Hirokami, Roman Kofman, Stefan Blunier, Christoph Poppen, Heinrich Schiff, Johannes Wildner, Theodore Kuchar, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä, Okko Kamu, Hannu Lintu, Ari Rasilainen and Leif Segerstam.
In 2005 Sigfridsson won the First Prize at the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Bonn, where he got the Audience Prize and Chamber Music Prize as well.
As the winner of the Second Prize of the Zurich Geza Anda Piano competition 2000, Sigfridsson not only impressed the Jury under the chairmanship of Vladimir Ashkenazy, he won the hearts of many members of the public who attended the final concert in the Zurich Tonhalle, and he walked off with the Geza Anda Audience Prize.
Sigfridsson got first prizes at the 1994 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Weimar and at the 1995 “Nordic Soloist Competition”. Moreover he got the second prize 2004 at the Maria Callas Competition in Athens.
Sigfridsson has made notable performances in the Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Concert Hall, Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonies, Munich Herkulessaal, Munich Prinzregententheater, Berlin Konzerthaus, Stockholm Concert Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, St. Petersburg Philharmony, major halls in Japan, Italy and Austria, Wigmore Hall London, Kennedy Center Washington, Megaron Athens, Theatre Chatelet Paris, Luxemburg Philharmony, Auditorio Nacional Madrid etc. Sigfridsson performs at very prestigious festivals like the Salzburg Festival, Augsburg Mozart Week, the St. Petersburg Musical Olympus Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, the Warsaw Beethoven Festival, the Heidelberg Festival, the Kissinger Sommer Festival, the Interlaken Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Davos, Gstaad Menuhin and Interlaken Festivals, the Styriarte Festival, the Lockenhaus Festival and Mondsee Festival.
Henri Sigfridsson feels a very deep commitment to chamber music. He appeared with Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Ivry Gitlis, Guy Braunstein, Isabelle van Keulen, Gordan Nikolic, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gareth Lubbe, Peter Hörr, Mischa Maisky, Sol Gabetta, Johannes Moser, David Geringas, Michel Lethiec, Milan Turkovich, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Boris Berezovsky and Melvyn Tan to name a few. In a piano-trio Sigfridsson has performed many times with Kopatchinskaja and Gabetta. Many concerts with the Ensemble Wien-Berlin and the Ensemble Wien-Tokyo.
Sigfridsson has a number of recordings including the Piano Concertos of F.X.Mozart. And for the memorable year of Sibelius, released Sibelius Piano Transcriptions. In addition the Piano Concertos no. 2 and no. 3 of Rachmaninov have been released. Sigfridsson has a contract with the Finnish CD label Ondine. Until now the 55-minute brilliant piano concerto by the Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola has been released. A CD with the piano transcriptions of Jean Sibelius` symphonies 2 and 5 has been released 2011. The piano concertos 1-3 of Selim Palmgren and 2&3 of Pehr Henrik Nordgren have been released recently.
Sigfridsson began studying with Sävy Nordgren at the Turku Conservatory and later at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki ( Prof. Erik T. Tawaststjerna). He completed his studies at the Cologne Music University with the highest distinction (Konzertexamen) in the class of Prof. Pavel Gililov. 1995-97 he studied at the Franz Liszt Music University in Weimar (Prof. Lazar Berman) as well.
2008-2009 Sigfridsson had a guest professorship at the Graz University or Music and Dramatic Arts in Austria. 2010-2012 he was a guest professor at the Music University Hanns Eisler in Berlin and from 2011 professor in Essen at the Folkwang University of the Arts as a holder of one of the highest chairs for piano in Germany.
In the recent years Sigfridsson has been active as conductor. After his studies under Prof. Jorma Panula and Prof. Atso Almila he has been conducting Middle European and Finnish orchestras, as well as the Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea and Toyooka Ensemble in Japan.