Aarne Pelkonen

Finnish baritone, born in 1986, Aarne Pelkonen is equally at home on stage at the opera and in concert performances. He found competition success at the Lappeenranta National Singing Competition (2013) and the International Jean Sibelius Singing Competition (2015).
Pelkonen studied singing at the Sibelius Academy in addition to studies in Berlin and numerous masterclasses. During the 2015–2017 seasons, he was a regular soloist with the opera company at the state
theatre in Oldenburg, Germany, where he performed roles including Figaro in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Donner in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and Pallante in Handel’s Agrippina. In 2019 he made his debut at the Finnish National Opera, where he created the lead role in Jaakko Kuusisto’s opera Jää. Since then, Pelkonen has created numerous roles including Ping in Puccini’s Turandot, Donald in Britten’s Billy Budd and Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Pelkonen has given guest performances at opera houses, festivals and concert halls both in Finland and across Europe. In Finland, he has performed with the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera, the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, and the YL Male-Voice Choir.