Antti Siirala’s international career was launched when he won First Prize in the 10th Vienna Beethoven competition as the youngest contestant, receiving the special award for the best performance of a late Beethoven sonata (op. 106 “Hammerklavier”). Subsequently he was awarded First Prize in the London International Piano Competition 2000, the Dublin International Piano Competition and the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2003.
Highlights of the season 2009/10, are concerts with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In October 2009 Antti Siirala gave his celebrated debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä and was re-invited immediately. In April 2010 he will perform as one of four pianists in the piano series of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Antti Siirala works with many renowned conductors, among them Paavo Berglund, Herbert Blomstedt, Michael Boder, Semyon Bychkov, Stéphane Denève, Thierry Fischer, Mikko Franck, Michael Gielen, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Pietari Inkinen, Kristjan Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Fabio Luisi, Susanna Mälkki, Gerhard Markson, Sakari Oramo, Eiji Oue, François-Xavier Roth, Yutaka Sado, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Lan Shui, Stefan Solyom, Osmo Vänskä, Mario Venzago and Hugh Wolff.
Siirala is and was invited to play with orchestras like Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Bochumer Symphoniker, hr-sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Museumsorchester Frankfurt, SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg und Baden-Baden, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Wiener Symphoniker, Tonkünstlerorchester Wien, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lille, City of Birmingham Symphony, Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony London, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Irish National Symphony, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Swedish National Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, St. Petersburger Symphoniker, Estonian National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra as well as with the orchestras of Melbourne and Queensland.
Major milestones on his steadily rising path of success were his recitals at the Lucerne Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Schumannfest Düsseldorf, Europäische Wochen Passau and at the Festivals of Bolzano, Bath and Kilkenny, Moritzburg as well as at the Cologne Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Dortmund, in Hannover Homburg/Saar, Mainz, Leverkusen, Wuppertal, London’s Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zurich, Brussels, Aix-les-Bains, Porto, Milano, Imola, Detroit and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. For a period of 3 years Antti Siirala was one of the artists in residence of the Konzerthaus Dortmund as part of the ‘Junge Wilde’ series.
His debut recording of Schubert transcriptions for NAXOS received excellent press reviews. For his recording of works by Brahms for ONDINE, he received 6 points out of 6 in the category interpretation from the Piano News magazine. For both recordings Siirala received the Gramophone Magazine's Editor's Choice award.
Beethoven and Brahms are at the core of Siirala’s repertoire, but his interest in contemporary music has resulted in first performances of works by Walter Gieseler, Kuldar Sink, Uljas Pulkkis and the premiere of the new piano concerto by Kalevi Aho. Kaja Saariaho’s first work for piano solo, “Balladen”, is part of his recital programme.
11/2009
Photo: Holger Jacoby
