March 07, 2026
JAPAN TOUR | PIETARI INKINEN
Pietari Inkinen embarks on an extensive tour of Japan beginning March 7 at the International Conference Center Hiroshima Phoenix Hall, where he conducts the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra. The program features Sibelius’s Pohjola’s Daughter, Op. 49, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major with Kit Armstrong as soloist, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73.
On March 13, 14, and 15, he appears with the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, reprising Sibelius’s tone poem and conducting Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto in E minor, Op. 125, with Hyogo-born cellist Yō Kitamura as soloist, alongside Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43.
The tour continues on March 19 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, where Inkinen leads the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Reuniting with Kit Armstrong, he conducts Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44. The program also includes Ravel’s La Valse and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44.
The tour concludes on March 22 with the Gunma Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring Sibelius’s symphonic poem "Forest Spirits" Op. 45-1, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 “Pastoral,” paired with Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92. The Finnish maestro has cultivated a particularly strong artistic relationship with Japan over many years, including a long tenure as Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra from 2016 to 2023 and frequent guest appearances with major Japanese orchestras.
More information about Pietari Inkinen:
https://pietariinkinen.com/ https://www.drp-orchester.de/drp/orchester/chefdirigent104.html
About the Conductor:
At the age of four, Pietari Inkinen received his first musical lessons. As a teenager, the Finnish conductor, born in 1980, began studying the violin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he also attended Jorma Panula's conducting class. Further studies took him to Zakhar Bron at the Cologne University of Music and back to Helsinki to Leif Segerstam. From 2008 to 2016, he was the chief conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and in 2014 and 2015, he spent five years each as chief conductor of the Ludwigsburg Festival and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. A special place in the conductor's career is held by the music of Richard Wagner: in 2014, he conducted Der Ring des Nibelungen for the first time at Opera Australia in Melbourne, and in 2021, he conducted Die Walküre at the Bayreuth Festival. There, he conducted the complete Tetralogy in 2023. Pietari Inkinen is in demand worldwide at opera houses from Helsinki to Brussels, Dresden, and Berlin, and has also worked with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Have a look at our news: https://o-pr.net/news/
