Ralf Gothoni

Ralf Georg Nils Gothóni (born May 2, 1946, Rauma, Finland) is active as pianist, conductor, chamber musician, professor and composer. In addition to all these activities he published, in 1998, essays such as "Luova hetki" ("The Creative Moment").

Since his debut with orchestra when he was fifteen years old, Gothóni has performed at the major music festivals and with important orchestras both as soloist and conductor. He is very often performing in a double role conducting from the keyboard.

His recording activity has given about one hundred editions for labels such as Bis, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, CPO and Ondine, for which he has carried out more than twenty recordings in the 90th. For this label, he has recorded for example Benjamin Britten's Piano Concerto and, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra of his native country, Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Choros XI".

He was the artistic director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1984–87 and he created the Forbidden City Music Festival in Beijing in 1996. He was professor for chamber music at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule Berlin, at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg and the since 2007 at Instituto International da Camara, Reina Sofia, Madrid. He is also sought after for master classes all over the world.

Gothóni has composed, amongst other things, three chamber operas and the cantata "The Ox and its Shepherd". Since 2000 he is the principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra and since 2004 the guest conductor of Deutsche Kammerakademie.

Gothóni has been recognized with important distinctions granted by governments and cultural institutions from Austria, Finland and the United States. He received the Gilmore Artist Award in 1994.

External links

* [http://gothoni.com/ Website] of Ralf Gothóni