Pekko Pulakka

Pekko Pulakka has been leader of the Tampere Philharmonic since autumn 2016, having previously been co-leader of the Turku Philharmonic. In 2015, he was the winner of the second prize in the Kuopio Violin Competition and was awarded the special prize for the most successful Finn in the Sibelius Violin Competition. Five years earlier, he had been the first Young Artist in the history of the Hauho Music Festival. He has also appeared in chamber repertoire at the Helsinki and Turku Festival and been a Young Chamber Musician at Kuhmo Chamber Music.

As a soloist, he has appeared with the Tampere and Turku Philharmonic, the Kuopio Symphony, the Vivo Symphony, the Lohja City and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. At an early age, he was already receiving first-class orchestral training and experience with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and later the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Since 2018, he has served as leader of the Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra.

Pulakka began his violin studies at the Helsinki Conservatory and spent 2008–2020 as a pupil of Janne Malmivaara at the Sibelius Academy. He received further tuition at the Violin Academy for talented young violinists, where his teachers were Elina Vähälä and Ilja Grubert in addition to Janne Malmivaara.