There are few pianists and, generally, musicians, who are as proficient in both, the classical music world and the jazz world, as the Finn Iiro Rantala. He toured the world for decades with the insanely energetic Trio Töykeät, and, in more recent days, enchants audiences with his feel for memorable melodies, great sense of humour, colossal pianistic skills and imaginative musical concepts. For his jazz works he received, among others, the German „Record Critic’s Award“ and ECHO Jazz and the Finnish EMMA Award. At the same time Iiro Rantala is a strong force in classical and contemporary music, bringing the verve, wit and expressiveness of his jazz background to his interpretations of Mozart, Gershwin, Beethoven and others. Already at the age of six, Iiro Rantala started singing classical music in the renown boy’s choir Cantores Minores and later took up a study of classical piano at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Soon after Rantala collaborated with Finnish classical greats such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tapiola Sinfonietta and Finnish violin greatest Pekka Kuusisto and, later on, also with international orchestras such as the Belgrade Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Kunglika Filharmonikerna and Västerås Sinfonietta.
He performed at world famous venues such as Cologne Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Berlin or Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt Berlin. In 2017 Rantala’s first piano concerto Concerto for piano and concerto in G#majAb premiered in Helsinki, orchestrated by the Finnish violinist, composer and conductor Jaakko Kuusisto. One year later, in 2018, Iiro Rantala’s opera Sanatorio Express premiered at the Finnish National Opera. In 2018 Iiro Rantala recorded and performed the programme Mozart, Bernstein, Lennon (ACT) together with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, which received great critical acclaim in both, the jazz and classical world and got nominated for the International Classical Music Award. In 2020, the new recording Playing Gershwin with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen will be released on ACT.
