Mika Pohjola at Rochester Jazz Festival and NYC's Miles Café;

Saturday, June 11 at 7 pm. Miles Café Jazz Club, 212 East 52nd Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, on the 3rd floor, Midtown Manhattan. Tel. (212) 371-7657.

Monday, June 13 at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, Lutheran Church, 115 N Chestnut St. Rochester, NY.

NEW YORK - Pianist-composer Mika Pohjola is scheduled to perform at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival on Monday, June 13. His quartet will additionally perform at Miles Café Jazz Club in New York City on Saturday, June 11. Pohjola is joined by Matt Renzi on saxophone and clarinet, Thomson Kneeland on bass and Kyle Struve on drums. Most selections on their repertoire are from Pohjola's creative pen, and his critically acclaimed albums, Northern Sunrise, Landmark and Announcement. Mika Pohjola Assembly is scheduled to perform at jazz festivals and clubs later in the spring and summer.

Mika Pohjola grew up in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. He then studied with Gary Burton and Herb Pomeroy at Berklee College of Music before moving to New York, and frequently touring Europe with his ensemble. Pohjola has not gone unnoticed by the major jazz media. Down Beat Magazine raves Pohjola's Live at the Blue Note album with four and a half stars: "Pohjola has been the recipient of some conspicuous attention these days. A stylist who possesses enormous chops, Pohjola delivers the goods in prominent fashion," and All Music Guide continues "this refreshing and altogether stirring production imparts a lasting impression." In 2009, Pohjola was cited as one "influential jazz pianist since 1990" in Jazz, a 700-page book on jazz history, authored by Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux.