Paavo Pohjola created an international career as a violin soloist, chamber musician and concert master, but had to give up performing due to hand problems in the late 1980s. He focused on teaching, first as the holder of the newly founded chamber music faculty of the Sibelius Academy, and after retiring, as a docent. He worked as a professor at Malmö University of Music for 6 years.

 

Pohjola's international course activities included, in addition to courses in Savonlinna and Seinäjoki, visits to Europe and the United States. Collaborators were e.g. The Amadeus and Chilingirian quartets, the Swedish Kyndel quartet and Nordic violin gurus Endre Wolf and Milan Vitek.