Pianist, piano TEACHER, artistic director, learning environment enthusiast, foodie, and part-time bookworm

I’m Niklas Pokki, a Finnish concert pianist, educator and artistic director living in Espoo, Finland. I work currently as head of piano department and a lecturer of piano and piano pedagogy at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. I also keep myself busy giving lectures in Finland and sometimes abroad. My favorite lecture topics are practicing, sight reading, and teacher´s communication skills.

MY PET PROJECTS

Mänttä Music Festival is an international piano festival that some of my friends and I founded back in 1999. It was voted for Finland Festivals´ Festival of the Year already in 2003, and has featured pianists such as Elisabeth Leonskaja, Richard Goode, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Beatrice Rana, Denis Kozhukin and Severin von Eckardstein.

The Youth Piano Academy, known in Finnish as Nuorten pianoakatemia is a special training program for exceptionally talented teenagers. I founded the Youth Piano Academy in 2013 with pianists Antti Siirala and Teppo Koivisto. Youngsters from all across Finland meet seven to ten times a year,  with various professors. We also organize workshops about different topics, including sight reading, practicing, the history of piano music, interpretation, and performing skills. I find the sessions incredibly fascinating and they seem to inspire students and professors alike.