PETRI MAKKONEN was born in 1967 in Iisalmi, central Finland. He started to play folk music with piano accordion in the age of eight. Six years later he began to get regular classical button accordion lessons from Heidi Velamo at Sibelius Academy Junior department in Helsinki. In the year 1994 he graduated with excellent marks Sibelius Academy Professional Department after studying accordion (teached by Matti Rantanen) and composition (teached by Heikki Valpola and Olli Kortekangas).

Petri Makkonen’s international achievements:
– The second prize in CIA international accordion tape-recording competition (cat. under 18 years) in 1985 – The Silver Disc –prize At Moscow accordion festival in 2006 for the work as a accordion composer – The Best new Original Work Award for his composition Tango-Toccata in coupe Mondiale accordion contest 2011 (Shanghai)
He has played as a musician in many CD:s, his own solo CD (The Red Bike) was released in 2006 (the Finnish Accordion Institute).

Nowadays Petri Makkonen works at Kuopio Concervatoire as an accordion lecturer and the conductor of Kuopio Concervatoire Accordion orchestra. He also gives solo concerts presenting mostly his own music, works diligently as a theatre musician and plays also in several bands with many different music styles (tango, folk, classical). In May 2012 he was the member of the jury in the Competition for Folk Music instruments (bayan and accordion categories) in St Petersburg, Russia.

Petri Makkonen´s compositions for accordion consists of:
– Virtuoso pieces well-known in international competitions and concert programs (Disco-Toccata, Disco-Tango, A Flight beyond Time, Tango-Toccata, Choral Prelude)
– Characteristic suites especially for children (Dance of Four Virtuosos, Space Music, Songs for Accordion, a dodecaphonic suite Ghost Party, Six Royal Canons, Five Pieces for Accordion, Chips from the Old Masters Workshop, Transition music, Real Stories!)
– other solo pieces in different styles (The Red Bike album: The Red bike, …Like swans, Stocking Rag, Polka Furioso and many others)
-some chamber music (pAn for accordion and tring quartet, Longing for Primitivity for three accordions, Mute Swan for accordion and violin, Mbprschzdt! for junior accordion orchestra).

He has also made a lot of arrangements for junior accordion orchestra and other instrument combinations. He has played as a musician in many CD:s, his own solo CD (The Red Bike) was released in 2006 ( the Finnish Accordion Institute). The sheet books of Petri Makkonen’s music are available in www.ams.production.fi and www.harmonikkainstituutti.net