Joonas Ahonen
Joonas Ahonen is a pianist whose work encompasses everything from late 18th-century music on fortepiano to world premieres of contemporary music of our time. As a member of Klangforum Wien for twelve years, he collaborated with leading living composers including Tristan Murail and Beat Furrer. Concert highlights include Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto with the Basel Sinfonietta, the world premiere of Bernhard Gander’s Piano Concerto in Stuttgart, Philipp Maintz’s Piano Concerto with Marin Alsop and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Ives’s Concord Sonata at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. With duo partner violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja he has performed at Teatro alla Scala Milan, Wiener Konzerthaus, Toppan Hall in Tokyo, and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival. Their album Le monde selon George Antheil, released on Alpha Classics in 2022, was described by Gramophone as a “miracle”. Joonas Ahonen’s discography also includes Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, the entire piano sonatas by Charles Ives, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations on an 1838 fortepiano, and a disc of world premiere recordings with the violinist Pekka Kuusisto. He has performed Morton Feldman in a pitch-black cattle barn in Finland, smashed a violin as part of Nam June Paik’s One for Violin Solo, and toured Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Achterland with the ensemble Rosas across Europe. Since 2023, he is Professor of Piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. With his interpretation of Morton Feldman’s Ixion to the choreography Summerspace by Merce Cunningham, he will make his debut with the Vienna State Ballet at the Vienna State Opera in 2025.