Pianist and composer Johannes Piirto rose to public attention in 2011 with his work Virta at the opening of the Helsinki Music Centre. Already in 2007, his orchestral work Lumière was awarded a prize at the Uuno Klami International Composition Competition, and in 2012 he was also successful at the international Maj Lind Piano Competition.

Piirto, who studied at the Sibelius Academy and the Vienna Music Academy, has performed at the Helsinki Festival, the Turku Music Festival, the Wien Modern and the Mikkeli Music Festival, where he made his debut at the age of 13 at the invitation of Valery Gergiev. A soloist for several Finnish orchestras, Piirto appeared with Camerata Salzburg, RSO and Vienna Volksoper in 2021-2022, and made his debuts at Iceland’s Harpa Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein with Julian Rachlin and Torleif Thedéen.