Cover Tarmo Peltokoski (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
Tarmo Peltokoski (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
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Tarmo Peltokoski, 24, will succeed Jaap van Zweden as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s music director, starting this September. He will become the youngest music director in the orchestra’s history
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPhil) has appointed Filipino-Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski as its next music director. Succeeding Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden, Peltokoski will first serve as the music director designate in the 2025/26 season, which begins this September, before beginning a four-year term as music director in the 2026/27 season.
Aged 24, he is the youngest music director appointed by the HKPhil. Speaking at a press conference on July 4, he confidently responded to questions about his age: “I’m only getting older and better. That's all I really have to say about this.”
Peltokoski is set to conduct HKPhil’s 2023/24 season finale concert (July 5 and 6), which features South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho; as well as the new season’s opening concert (September 5 and 6), in which Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich will perform. Both will take place at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
In a press statement, Benedikt Fohr, HKPhil’s chief executive, praises Peltokoski as “a highly talented musician from the younger generation”.
“Under his leadership, we wish to inspire a new generation of music lovers, and continue to enhance our artistic excellence and elevate our reputation in Hong Kong and beyond,” he says.
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Above From left: Tarmo Peltokoski and David Cogman, the chairman of HKPhil (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
From left: Tarmo Peltokoski and David Cogman, the chairman of HKPhil (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
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Peltokoski made his debut with the HKPhil in June 2023, when he conducted Sibelius’ Finlandia, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s Symphony Number 10.
“I am honoured and thrilled to be named music director of the HKPhil,” he says in a press statement. “After being highly impressed by the orchestra last year, I knew this would be a long-lasting relationship. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is surely one of the absolute top orchestras in Asia. I am very much looking forward to lots of inspiring music-making with the brilliant HKPhil musicians in the years to come.”
In January 2022, Peltokoski, then 21, was named the principal guest conductor of Germany’s chamber orchestra The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, making him the first conductor to hold this position in the orchestra’s 42-year history. In the same year, he was named music director of several European orchestras, including those of Latvia and Rotterdam; his role at Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, in particular, will be held until 2026. He is also an accomplished pianist and has appeared as a soloist with all major Finnish orchestras. In October 2023, he signed an exclusive recording contract with the classical music label Deutsche Grammophon and released his debut album in May this year.
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
