Born in 1964, saxophonist and composer Pekka Pylkkänen has been recognized asone of the stronger jazz artists and saxophonists in Europe. He has performedaround the globe and been successful not only in Europe, but also for example inAsia and South-America. He has collaborated with numerous prestigious artists inmany countries, and continues to work as a soloist/leader, recording artist andeducator throughout the world.During his earlier career he worked several years full-time with the ‘National JazzOrchestra of Finland’ – UMO Jazz Orchestra, with which he also sometimesperformed modern contemporary music, and was often featured as a soloist. Someof the guests for both UMO Jazz Orchestra and the infamous Espoo Big Band (withwhich he also performed with several years in the 90’s) included stars such as VinceMendoza, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Bob Mintzer, DaveLiebman, Michael Abene, Odean Pope, Grady Tate, Mercer Ellington, Dee DeeBridgewater, etc

   As a leader he has performed in more than 50 countries (Finland, Denmark,Norway, USA, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Korea, China andJapan, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, SouthAfrica etc.) He has appeared as a leader/soloist in around 2000 concerts during thelast 20 years, most of them outside Finland. His appearances range from clubs toconcert halls and major festivals, such as Hong Kong Jazz Festival, Beijing JazzFestival, Trondheim Jazz Festival, National Arts Festival (South Africa), Lima Jazz,Providencia Festival de Jazz (Santiago, Chile), Yokohama Jazz Promenade,Yarasum Jazz Festival, Beijing Concert Hall, The Spring Hall (Seoul/Korea), DaeguCultural Center/Korea, Nordic Jazz Invasion (Sao Paulo, Brazil). La PavillionBlanco (Cordoba, Argentina), Beijing Music Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, etcIn addition to his long career as a performing artist,

Pekka has led a significantcareer as an educator. Previously working as a Senior Lecturer/Principal Lecturer atKarelia UAS and Metropolia UAS, but nowadays his educational activities includeonly master classes and artistic residencies in the conservatories and musiccolleges/universities globally. He has had lectures or master classes in around 75music colleges around the world.For example: Tokyo College of Music, Royal Academy of Music (Denmark), HongKong Academy for Performing Arts, Koyo Conservatory (Kobe, Japan), ShanghaiConservatory, LUCA School of Arts (Leuven, Belgium) Royal Conservatory (TheHague, Netherlands), Saint Louis College (Rome, Italy), La Faro Institute (MexicoCity), EMU (Argentina), La Salle College (Singapore), UCSI University (KualaLumpur, Malaysia) etc.His 2 first CDs were released by Naxos Jazz, with a worldwide distribution, and histhird release ‘Listen!’ was released by Lumino Records in CD format, and on BlueMusic Group as a digital release. His latest release on Challenge RecordsInternational titled ‘Pylkkanen:Nu Bottega’ was released on April 3rd, 2020.He represents Ken Okutsu Mouthpieces, Marmaduke Music accessories andKeilwerth Saxophones and Vandoren reeds.