Aarne Pelkonen

One of the most sought-after young baritones of his generation in Finland, Aarne Pelkonen is equally at home on stage at the opera and in concert performances. Audiences will remember competition successes at the Lappeenranta National Singing Competition (2013) and the International Jean Sibelius Singing Competition (2015). He has also garnered success at several competitions outside Finland. Pelkonen studied singing at the Sibelius Academy under the tutelage of Marjut Hannula, in Berlin with Prof. Thomas Quasthoff, and has taken part in numerous masterclasses with teachers including Thomas Hampson and Barbara Bonney. In the field of lied singing, notable teachers include Wolfram Rieger, Gerold Huber, Heikki Pellinen and Ilmo Ranta.
During the 2015–2017 seasons, Aarne was a regular soloist with the opera company at the state theatre in Oldenburg, Germany, where he performed roles including Figaro in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Donner in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and Pallante in Handel’s Agrippina. In 2019 he made his debut at the Finnish National Opera, where he created the lead role in Jaakko Kuusisto’s opera Jää (‘Ice’). Since then, Pelkonen has created numerous roles including Ping in Puccini’s Turandot, Donald in Britten’s Billy Budd and Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Aarne Pelkonen is an active recital performer too, and furthermore he is a founding member of the Finnish Lied Academy. Spanning a period of over ten years, his collaboration with pianist Juhani Alakärppä has been critically acclaimed in Finland and has garnered several prizes at international competitions too.

Pelkonen has given guest performances at opera houses, festivals and concert halls both in Finland and across Europe. In Finland, he has performed with the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera, the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, and the YL Male-Voice Choir. He has become a familiar face to Finnish audiences through his numerous performances on TV, radio and social media.