Jan-Erik Gustafsson
cello
Winner of the 1994 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Finnish cellist Jan-Erik Gustafsson made his New York recital, his Washington recital debut on the Series at the Kennedy Center, and his New York concerto debut performing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme at Alice Tully Hall with the New York Chamber Symphony.
Just prior to winning a place on the YCA roster, Mr. Gustafsson won Second Prize at the 1993 Leonard Rose International Cello Competition at the University of Maryland. He performed the Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yan-Pascal Tortelier, and the Washington Post wrote that he "set the work ablaze with fury and grandeur." Mr. Gustafsson has also performed this work with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, at the 1997 Rostropovich Cello Congress.
Since winning the 1986 EBU "Young Musician of the Year" Competition, Mr. Gustafsson has performed as soloist with orchestras in the USA, the Far East and Europe, including the London Symphony Orchestra, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna, Avanti!, the Camerata Bern and Lausanne chamber orchestras, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Stockholm Philharmonic and Stockholm Sinfonietta; the Jerusalem, Iceland, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras and the Berlin, Swedish, Finish, Danish and Dutch Radio Symphonies. He was a guest soloist on a tour of Spain with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with such conductors as Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Andrew Litton, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Leonid Grin, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, and Hans Graf. In Asia, Mr. Gustafsson has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and given recitals in Japan, culminating in a major recital at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In South America he toured as a soloist of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Leif Segerstam in spring 2004.
He has also appeared in London at Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room, in Stuttgart at the Süddeutsche Rundfunk, for the Royal Dublin Society, RIAS (Radio) Berlin, in the Brahms Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, at St. Petersburg's Musical Olympus Festival, and on a tour of South Africa.
Mr. Gustafsson's United States tours have included recitals in Boston and in venues in Iowa, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Michigan. In recital, he performs regularly also throughout Scandinavia at music festivals.
Jan-Erik Gustafsson is the Director of Loviisa Sibelius Festival in Finland.
The record label Ondine has released three of Mr. Gustafsson's CDs. The first, named Recording of the Year by the Finnish Broadcasting Company, contains sonatas by Szymanowsky, Kodaly and Schnittke. In the second disc, Mr. Gustafsson plays Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante and Aarre Merikanto's Concerto No. 2 with the Finnish RSO / Sakari Oramo. In the third disc Mr. Gustafsson plays Einar Englund's Cello Concerto with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra / Eri Klas.
Mr. Gustafsson plays a Carl Giuseppe Testore cello made in Milan in 1718 and loaned to him by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
