MARKO YLÖNEN
Photo: Juha Puhakka
BIOGRAPHY
During his career, cellist Marko Ylönen has held numerous roles, including soloist, principal cellist in orchestras, member of a quartet, chamber musician in several duos and trios, artistic director at several festivals, and teacher. He has also been successful in numerous domestic and international competitions and has recorded a large number of key and newer cello works. It is therefore not surprising that his repertoire is very broad. In addition to key works by C.P.E. Bach, Boccherini, Vivaldi, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev, it includes a wide range of works by Finnish composers such as P.H. Nordgren, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Joonas Kokkonen, Jouni Kaipainen, and Olli Mustonen.
Ylönen has performed extensively in Europe, the US, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. He has recorded for Ondine, Finlandia, BIS, and Alba, among others.
In 1990, Marko Ylönen won second prize at the Turku Nordic Cello Competition in Turku and later a prize at the final of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In the spring of 1996, he won first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York.
Marko Ylönen regularly performs as a soloist with most Finnish orchestras. He has also appeared as a soloist with Camerata Salzburg, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Adelaide, Melbourne, Gothenburg, and Stavanger symphony orchestras, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. His collaborations with conductors include Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Juha Kangas, John Storgårds, Leif Segerstam, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Ben Wallfish, Klaus Mäkelä, Sakari Oramo, Mosche Atzmon, Alexander Vedernikov, and Olli Mustonen.
Ylönen has given recitals at venues including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York and Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal in Amsterdam. He has performed chamber music with many of the world's leading musicians in various ensembles at festivals in Finland and abroad.
In 2003, 2008, and 2010–12, Ylönen was invited to serve as artistic director of the Korsholm Music Festival, and from 2014 to 2017 he held the same position at the LuostoClassic festival.
In 2026, he will serve as chair of the artistic committee for the Lauttasaari Music Festival LaruFest.
Marko Ylönen has been a professor of chamber music at the Sibelius Academy since 2009. Ylönen's teachers have included Csaba Szilvay, Erkki Rautio, Heikki Rautasalo, and Marcel Bergman. His cello is a Bartolomeo Cristofori from the 1720s.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Marko Ylönen's website