Finnish pianist Paavali Jumppanen will perform at Morningside College at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, in Eppley Auditorium as part of the Morningside College Piano Recital Series.

Finnish pianist Paavali Jumppanen will perform at Morningside College at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, in Eppley Auditorium, 3625 Garretson Ave., as part of the Morningside College Piano Recital Series.

The recital is free and open to the public. Everyone is invited to a reception in the lobby following the performance.

Known for his virtuosity, Jumppanen has championed major works by avant-garde composers. Critics have hailed his recording of the Boulez piano sonatas, made at the composer’s request, as “the best recorded disc of Boulez’s piano music so far.” The recital at Morningside will include works by Boulez, Debussy and Bartók.

Since winning first prize in Helsinki’s Maj Lind Piano Competition in 1994, Jumppanen has become a regular soloist of Finland’s leading orchestras. He has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, Australia and the United States. His 2010 performance at Boston’s Gardner Museum was selected as one of the top ten performances of the year by The Boston Globe, which reported it be “a rare wedding of intellectual penetration, coloristic imagination, and sheer virtuoso firepower.”

A recording with violinist Corey Cerovsek of the complete “Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin” received the MIDEM Prize for the best chamber music disc of 2008. He spent the 2011-2012 season in residence at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.