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.