Tarmo Peltokoski, 24-year-old Finnish conductor, will become music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic

Tarmo Peltokoski was hired Thursday to succeed Jaap van Zweden as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Peltokoski, 24 years much younger than most music directors, will begin a five-year term in the 2026-27 season after serving as music director designate in 2025-26, the Philharmonic said.

“I was extremely impressed with the orchestra right away,” Peltokoski said. “Absolutely one of the best orchestras in Asia, for sure. So when the offer came, it was an easy yes for me.”

Peltokoski grew up in Finland and studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Jorma Panula, a famous 93-year-old conductor, composer and teacher, whose students included Esa-Pekka Salonen, Susanna MälkkiOsmo Vänskä and Klaus Mäkelä.

“He wants to give young, established instrumentalists the opportunity to conduct, which doesn’t really happen in other countries,” said Peltokoski. “So I’m extremely grateful for that. And secondly, he sees the potential and really nurtures the talents that he thinks are worth his time. And thirdly, he wants people to be individuals and doesn’t force anything on anyone, so he really wants to keep each student’s personality strong and make them even stronger.”

Only 28, Mäkelä was hired in April to succeed Riccardo Muti as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra starting in 2027-28.

Peltokoski’s hiring marks a generational shift in Hong Kong. Van Zweden became musical director for the 2012-13 season and the 63-year-old conducted his farewell concert on June 26.

Peltokoski made his debut with the Hong Kong orchestra in June 2023 leading Sibelius’s “Finland,” Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony.

“It wasn’t like a conductor/orchestra relationship. It was: we make music together,” said chief executive Benedikt Fohr. “He’s young, but he already has this intense experience of working on repertoire and a clear focus on where he wanted to be that week, but also when you talk to him, where he wants to be in 10 years.”

Peltokoski began studying piano at age 8 and decided he wanted to become a conductor after seeing clips of Daniel Barenboim conducting Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival on YouTube. He asked his parents to buy him the DVD.

Peltokoski, who lives in Helsinki, has been music director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since 2022-23, an appointment that extends until the 2024-25 season. He becomes music director of France’s Toulouse Capitol National Orchestra in 2025-26.

Deutsche Grammophon signed him to an exclusive recording contract in October. He first conducted Wagner’s Ring at age 22 at Finland’s Eurajoki Bel Canto Festival in August 2022.

“My career starts in a very symphonic way, but in the long term my plan is to move more in the direction of opera,” he said.

Founded in 1947 as the Sino-British Orchestra, the ensemble was renamed the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974. It performs around 150 concerts over a 44-week season.

Peltokoski will guest conduct the orchestra on Friday and Saturday in Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, then open the 2024-25 season on September 5 at the Hong Kong Cultural Center Concert Hall, with 1,971 places.

Fohr described Peltokoski as insistent as van Zweden, but with a different method.

“The musicians feel that he gives them much more freedom to achieve the common goal,” said Fohr, “where Jaap expects everyone to follow his speed and instructions 100%.”