Erik Thomas Tawaststjerna is a Finnish pianist and educator born on 8 June 1951 in Helsinki. The son of Sibelius scholar Erik W. Tawaststjerna, he studied in Helsinki, Moscow, Vienna, and at the Juilliard School. He earned a doctorate from New York University with the thesis Finnish Piano Music Since 1945. Tawaststjerna achieved early recognition by winning second prize at the 1968 Maj Lind Piano Competition. His career includes performances as a soloist and chamber musician, notably recording the complete original piano works of Jean Sibelius. In 1981, he performed as the soloist for the Finnish premiere of Leonard Bernstein's “The Age of Anxiety”. Tawaststjerna was invited to perform at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo for the Emperor and Empress of Japan in 1990. He joined the faculty of the Sibelius Academy in 1982 and was appointed professor in 1986. Between 1990 and 2009, he served as the artistic director of the Espoo International Piano Festival.
