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The Finnish guitarist, Timo Korhonen, made his debut at the age of 14 and began his international career at the age of 17 when he became the youngest ever winner of the guitar category in the ARD competition in Munich. He has studied with Oscar Ghiglia, Seppo Siirala and Pekka Vesanen.
Timo Korhonen is an active globetrotting soloist, chamber musician and teacher of master-classes. He has appeared in over 30 countries at distinguished festivals including The Berlin Festival, London, Chicago, Vienna, Strasbourg, Paris, Rome, St. Petersburg, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Festival Atempo Caracas, Tokyo, Ars Musica Brussels, Ojai Festival California, Hongkong Chopin-Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Havana Festival, Mexico, etc. He has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra; and with the conductors Tuomas Hannikainen, Susanna Mälkki, Tuomas Ollila, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, John Storgårds Joseph Swensen and Osmo Vänskä.
Timo Korhonen is one of the most versatile proponents on his instrument in the world. Freedom of interpretation, bearlike strength and richness of sound are components of his deep-rooted artist persona. Korhonens interpretations are natural, strong in contrast and uncompromising in their aim at reprodusing the content of a composition in as true manner as possible and with the profound understanding of its style.
Timo Korhonen’s repertoire includes the entire core repertoire written for his instrument. He is an ardent promoter of contemporary music, and has premiered over 40 works. Several composers, including Magnus Lindberg, Leo Brouwer, Toshio Hosokawa, Usko Meriläinen and Jouni Kaipainen, have dedicated works to him. Korhonen likes to construct his concert programmes by using the tension caused by unprejudiced juxtaposition of musical styles. Since September 1999, he has performed one of the strangest key works of the 20th century: Sonate in Urlauten by Kurt Schwitters. Korhonen's performance of this 35 minutes lasting phonetic dada sonata has generated interest and confusion in many places.
Timo Korhonen is the founder and artistic director the Guitaristival, an international competition and festival in Finland and was the artistic director of the Suomenlinna Culinary Concerts in Helsinki from 1998 to 2000. He teaches at The Turku Music Academy in Finland. He is a Docent at the Turku Music Academy. From January 2005 to the end of June 2007 he was a visiting professor at The State Conservatoire "Luigi Cherubini" in Florence, Italy. He was teacher at the Sibelius Academy in 1989-1999. His students have won more than 40 prizes in international competitions.
Timo Korhonen records regularly for Ondine-label and his recordings have won an enthusiastic reception by international critics and audience. The leading North American online record magazine ClassicsToday.com selected his recording of the Concerto of Helsinki, dedicated to Timo Korhonen by Leo Brouwer, (with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tuomas Ollila) Disc of the Month in April 2002 in USA. In January 2003, the Brouwer recording received a Cannes Classical Award.
Timo Korhonen plays a Brian Cohen guitar dated 1996 and a Richard Jacob "Weissgerber" guitar dated 1928. |
