Janne Mertanen

Pianist Janne Mertanen is known as a Chopin specialist but also plays a variety of other music, much of it Scandinavian. He has recorded for the Alba and Sony Classical labels. Mertanen was born on August 28, 1967, in Joensuu in eastern Finland. He has retained ties to that city, serving as artistic director of the Joensuu Music Festival. Mertanen attended the Joensuu Institute of Music from 1982 to 1986; his principal teacher was Matti Haapasalo, but he also attended master classes, traveling to Zurich, Switzerland, for one with Verena Pfenninger. He moved to the Finnish capital of Helsinki from 1986 to 1992 for studies at the Sibelius Academy with Erik T. Tawaststjerna and Dmitri Bashkirov, and from 1993 to 1995, he rounded out his education at the Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy, studying with Lazar Berman. Mertanen scored a major breakthrough as a performer with a win at the International Chopin Competition in Darmstadt, Germany, and since then, he has been identified especially with Chopin’s music. He also won the Nyborg Nordic Competition. Mertanen made his recording debut in 1994 on the Finlandia Records label with the album Chopin Recital; that album was reissued by the Fazer label in 2011. Beginning in 1998, he recorded for the Alba label, releasing an album of piano works by composer Joonas Kokkonen there in 2001. Mertanen has appeared with major Finnish orchestras and has also performed as a concerto soloist with orchestras in Germany and in other Scandinavian countries. In 2010, he performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, with the Orchestra of the National Theater of Brazil. He is especially active as a recitalist, appearing at Casals Hall in Tokyo during the 1991-1992 season, making his Wigmore Hall debut in London in 1994, and later touring in Australia, the U.S., and Canada. Mertanen recorded for Alba frequently until the late 2010s, releasing albums of contemporary Finnish music as well as Chopin and other Romantic repertory. In 2023, he moved to the Sony Classical label, releasing the album Chopin. ~ James Manheim