Dr. Niklas Pokki (b. 1976) is the founder and artistic director of the Mänttä Music Festival, Finland’s most significant annual piano event, which he has led since 1999. He is Head of the Piano Department at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Several of his students have won prizes in national and international competitions, including the Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias, whose debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon was released in spring 2024.

Pokki is also the co-founder and coordinator of the Youth Piano Academy Finland, a national talent education program whose students have, to date, won over 100 prizes in national and international piano competitions. The academy’s most internationally recognized alumnus is conductor Tarmo Peltokoski.

Pokki is an active masterclass teacher and lecturer, and he frequently serves on juries of national and international piano competitions. As a researcher, he has published in the fields of music pedagogy and music psychology.

He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Baden-Baden Philharmonic and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. He has premiered works by composers including Jean Sibelius, Erkki Melartin, Kalevi Aho, Osmo-Tapio Räihälä, and Tõnu Kõrvits, and has given broadcasted concerts on Yle, Classic FM, Eesti Klassikaraadio, and SWR1, as well as made studio recordings.
Pokki studied at the Sibelius Academy and at the University of Music Karlsruhe, Germany. His teachers include Matti Raekallio, Teppo Koivisto, Erik T. Tawaststjerna, Carmen Piazzini, and Emanuel Krasovsky.