Conductor, 23, is writing his memoirs
OrchestrasThe Helsingin Sanomat has an interview with Finland’s rising star. Tarmo Peltokoski is only 23 and already music director in Toulouse, France. He is also artistic director of Latvian National Orchestra in Riga.
Tarmo admits he dropped out of both high school and the Sibelius Academy to get an early start on the podium. ‘You have to understand that going to school and becoming a musician are two very different things. Some people want to graduate, but I wanted to be a conductor.’
He does little of interest outside music. ‘I enjoy dealing with printing ink. And sometimes I write myself, notes and diaries. I’ve been told that you should start writing your memoirs right away. I already started it six years ago.’
More here.
What is the step after very pathetic?
This is the real music industry! Hilarious!
A bit young to be writing memoirs. Write a private diary and publish your memoirs at about 50 when you’ve lived a bit.
Enjoys dealing with what !?
Letting the pencil run over Yuja.
May I be your bookmark, please?
Or is it a spelling mistake?
printing ink = Pietari Inkinen
I think he’s adorable and the concert he had with Golda Schultz was pretty good.
Is Amazon already offering pre-orders to those who can’t wait to read the scintillating contents?
Go back to school, you silly boy. Let the experienced elders do your job properly.
He is a fantastic musician.
Or maybe the elders need to accept that the world has changed and let the young thrive
What is he going to write about? His drunken college years?
This guy is as pathetic and narcissistic as his girlfriend.
Pah
He is a super talented musician…
This kid has a disproportionately large and unappealing ego – by and large to compensate for having the insecurities of a young boy. I hope he can adjust himself into being a more level human being first before merely trying to be a ‘conductor’.
perhaps someone should send him Bruno Walters autobiography
This comment should have 1K likes
I know because everything was so much better back then. You had Toscanini taking things too fast, Celibidache taking things way too slow, and HVK with a stick that made it impossible for the BPO to be truly accurate. Oh, the good ole days.
Yuja is with Klaus, the OTHER overrated young conductor.
I think not. Makela does not wear those thick rimmed spectacles. Peltokoski does.
Thank you for your opinion, fourth-rate percussionist playing in Broadway musicals. It’s very helpful.
Klaus Nomi?
Perhaps they will be interesting. Or not. But as a rule, if you want to squirm at 60, write your memoires at 23.
I took “I’ve been told that you should start writing your memoirs right away” (the key word being “start”) to mean that he should be taking notes and maybe drafting things now, about his current life, while he still remembers them clearly. I certainly didn’t understand him to mean that he plans to publish them anytime soon.
I missed something – is Wang with him now? Or is she just practising for the other fellow? As for the “memoirs”… I think we’re missing the uniquely deadpan Finnish sense of humour
Finns ain’t what they Yuja be.
I believe you are absolutely correct about the dead-pan Finnish delivery here…
A look at his biography and the orchestras he has worked with including the Concertgebouw, Toronto Symphony and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France as well as being the first ever Principal Guest of the excellent Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie shows a young man who is obviously admired in the music profession. With a Ring cycle and Tristan on the horizon, whether or not we think he is far too young to tackle such works, his views on a young conductor’s progress could be fascinating.
He has already conducted the Ring…
The guy made some throwaway comment about keeping a diary. Because SD chose to dissect that one statement, it’s turned into fodder for others to insult him. And naturally it had to be accompanied with a photo of him getting a smooch from a world famous pianist.
Instead of applauding and encouraging him, many jealous readers prefer dissing this young man, who creates and has ambitions while they just hiss and type. And maybe they, too, would like to get Yuja’s attention. Grow up!
Exactly. He doesn’t say he’s writing his memoirs for near-term publication; it’s fair to imagine that he’s writing a diary so he can consult them if he ever considers publishing a memoir much later in life.
23? memoirs? just how narcissistic is this little boy?
As others said, he’s writing a diary, not memoirs per se. They’re quite different personalities, but his career trajectory reminds me of Mikko Franck, who also dropped out of the Sibelius Academy conducting class at the age of 18 and was signed by the Belgian National Orchestra at the age of 23.
Andreas C. Mikko Franck didn’t drop out of school, he made a 3-year programme in one year.
Is this a blog about classical music or just another Page Six? It’s becoming impossible to see the difference…
It seems SD, once a more serious blog site about classical music and musicians, is slowly descending to the more usual depths of most of the unsocial media in the world. Don’t those making petty, childish comments about personalities and events of which they know little or nothing realise that all it does is show them up as childish and petty themselves? Of course they will not accept such comment. Unsocial media permits no argument and the oft used “I’m just joking” response wears dreadfully thin.
If NL wants readers to take out subscriptions, then surely consideration should be given to the moderation being tightened.
Definately one of the better young talents out there. He’s street’s ahead of Mäkelä, Dudamel, Viotti. Do NOT underestimate Peltokoski !
Can it be that the readers of this blog hate young successful artists? That old, time-worn big names (Muti, Barenboim et al) are revered no matter what they do? That we can whine about the “decline of culture“ and the lack of a younger generation audience, yet badmouth the numerous Finnish and very young conductors and Asian artists filling concert halls?
Judging from the harsh criticisms, opinions and judgements of this young man – someone not a single one of us knows – I must be right.
PS: One reader was spot on identifying what could well have been the conductor’s sense of irony delivered with dead-pan Finnish style. And hundreds of readers miss the irony and jump to the anglocentric conclusion that the guy is an egomaniac! Oh my!
I see he will be conducting the closing concerts of the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s season at the start of July. With van Zweden’s departure after12 years with the orchestra, I suspect he must be on the short list of possible successors,
I was one of the attendees of the HKPhil season finale. It was phenomenal, especially his Finlandia – was expecting another perfunctory go-through as a starting piece but gosh he delivered. I am sure more than one of us in the audience was moved by the hymn/chorale, which was even more poginant since the concert took place on 1 July (the day when the Handover took place).
Having worked under his baton for several concerts, I can confirm some things:
1: Tarmo is as humble conductor I have worked with during my 25 year career.
2: He is incredibly talented.
3: His baton technique is extraordinary.
4:His concerts are exceptional.
5:If anyone is to get annoyed about anything it should be that one person has so many talents and remains so dedicated and humble. SUCH a nice presence on the podium. That really gets my pukki.