Folke Johan Gottfrid Gräsbeck, D.Mus.

Doctor of Music

The Doctor of Music degree , like other doctorates, is an academic degree of the highest level. The D.Mus. is intended for musicians and composers who wish to combine the highest attainments in their area of specialization with doctoral-level academic study in music...

, (born October 6, 1956 in Turku, Finland

Turku

Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

) is a Finnish classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

.

Background

Folke Gräsbeck was born to a musical family: his father was the composer Gottfrid Gräsbeck (1927–2010). Folke began to play the piano at the age of two, under the guidance of his mother La Vonne Gräsbeck, and continued his studies at the Turku Conservatory at the age of five.

Gräsbeck made his solo orchestral debut with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 12, playing the 1st movement of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 12

Piano Concerto No. 12 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414 was written in the autumn of 1782 in Vienna. It is scored for solo piano, two oboes, two bassoons , two horns, and strings...

, and with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a Finnish orchestra based in Helsinki, and is the chief radio orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company . The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre...

 at the age of 14, playing the Weber Konzertstück

Konzertstück for Piano and Orchestra in F minor (Weber)

The Konzertstück in F minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 79, J. 282, was written by Carl Maria von Weber. He started work on it in 1815, and completed it on the morning of the premiere of his opera Der Freischütz, 18 June 1821...

. By the age of 17, Gräsbeck had won two national piano competitions in Finland, playing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4

Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was composed in 1805–1806, although no autograph copy survives.-Musical forces and movements:...

 and the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1

Piano Concerto No. 1 (Prokofiev)

Sergei Prokofiev set about composing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10 in 1911 and finished it in 1912. A one-movement concerto, it is the shortest of his five complete piano concertos, lasting only around a quarter of an hour.- Structure :...

.

After winning the national competitions, Gräsbeck's right hand was injured in 1974. He would not start performing on a regular basis again until in 1981, when he underwent a successful surgery on the hand.

Education

In addition to his studies at the Turku Conservatory in the 1960s and 1970s, Gräsbeck studied privately with Maria Curcio

Maria Curcio

Maria Curcio was an Italian classical pianist who became renowned as a greatly influential and sought-after teacher. Her students included Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Leon Fleisher and Geoffrey Tozer...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 during the 1970s and 1980s. Gräsbeck also studied at the Sibelius Academy

Sibelius Academy

The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...

 from 1980s through 2000s, earning his Master of Music

Master of Music

The Master of Music is the first graduate degree in Music awarded by universities and music conservatories. The M.Mus. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy...

 degree in 1997 and Doctor of Music

Doctor of Music

The Doctor of Music degree , like other doctorates, is an academic degree of the highest level. The D.Mus. is intended for musicians and composers who wish to combine the highest attainments in their area of specialization with doctoral-level academic study in music...

 degree in 2008.

Career

Gräsbeck has done well over 3000 performances since 1981, around 100 performances in a year, including concerts and recordings.

Gräsbeck has performed some 30 piano concertos, playing with orchestras in the Nordic countries

Nordic countries

The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...

, the Baltic states

Baltic states

The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, and given performances as a recital

Recital

A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....

ist, a chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

ian and a Lied

Lied

is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...

accompanist all around the world, including in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. As Linda Brava

Linda Brava

Linda Magdalena Cullberg Lampenius, better known by her maiden name Linda Lampenius and international stage name Linda Brava, is a Finnish classical concert violinist and recording artist.-Background:...

's accompanist, Gräsbeck has played for the Swedish Royal Family

Swedish Royal Family

The Swedish Royal Family since 1818 consists of a number of persons in the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte, closely related to the King of Sweden. They are entitled to royal titles and style , and some perform official engagements and ceremonial duties of state...

 during a birthday concert of HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden

Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland is the heiress-apparent to the Swedish throne. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Sweden's fourth queen regnant .-Early life:...

.

Gräsbeck has performed over 385 of Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...

' circa 550 compositions, and he has also given the world premiere performances of 82 of them. Gräsbeck was the first pianist to give a recital at the new Sibelius Hall

Sibelius Hall

The Sibelius Hall is a concert hall in Lahti, Finland, named after the composer Jean Sibelius. The concert hall was completed in 2000. Architects Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikka designed the hall, which is made of wood. The acoustics were engineered by Artec Consultants, New York...

 in Finland, playing a programme exclusively devoted to Sibelius' piano music premieres.

Gräsbeck has been performing at the annual Helsinki Festival since 1971, and he has also been working as a lecturer

Lecturer

Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...

 and an accompanist at the Sibelius Academy since 1985.

Discography

Gräsbeck has made over 50 recordings, 20 of them for BIS

BIS Records

BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden.BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings....

, many of which are included in the company's ongoing complete recorded Jean Sibelius edition (distribution in 46 countries worldwide).

Gräsbeck has recorded with various musicians, including with Alexander Tselyakov

Alexander Tselyakov

Alexander Tselyakov is a Russian classical pianist and educator.Tselyakov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and made his professional debut as soloist with the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra in his native Soviet Union at the age of nine. He went on to study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory...

, with whom he has recorded the Shostakovich Suite in F-sharp and the Shostakovich Symphony No. 10

Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich)

The Symphony No. 10 in E minor by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953, following the death of Joseph Stalin in March that year...

.