©Photo: Joel Larson

©Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

Osmo Vänskä

Conductor

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“Vänskä isn’t only about meticulous preparation. In concert he’s a wiry dynamo: lean, whippy and indefatigably energetic. His interpretations are the same. He never stops probing and pushing.”
(The Times)

Music Director: Minnesota Orchestra
Music Director: Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (from 2020)
Principal Guest Conductor: Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Laureate: Lahti Symphony Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä has been Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra for 16 years and in January 2020 begins his new role as Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Recognised for compelling interpretations of repertoire of all ages and an energetic presence on the podium, his democratic and inclusive style of work has been key in forging long-standing relationships with different orchestras.

With the Minnesota Orchestra, Vänskä has undertaken five major European tours, as well as historic trips to Cuba in 2015, at the invitation of the Cuban Ministry of Culture – the first visit by an American orchestra since the two countries announced steps to re-establish diplomatic relations – and South Africa in 2018, as part of worldwide celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s Centenary. The latter was the first visit by an American orchestra to the country and drew together South African and American performers in musical expressions of peace, freedom and reconciliation, on a five-city tour that followed a successful return to London’s BBC Proms.

Other highlights of his tenure in Minnesota include 19 album recordings, leading and mentoring young composers during the annual Composer Institute seminar, initiating and conducting the annual Future Classics concerts, and various educational and outreach projects in Minneapolis and other cities.

As a guest conductor, this season he debuts with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and returns to Pittsburgh Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and Taiwan Philharmonic orchestras, and Orchestre National de Lyon, while making his regular season appearances with Helsinki Philharmonic and Iceland Symphony orchestras. Committed to educational projects, this season he also returns to New World Symphony and tours the East Coast of the United States with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Osmo Vänska - Sibelius Symphony No. 2 © Minnesota Orchestra

A distinguished recording artist, primarily for the BIS label, Vänskä is currently recording all of Mahler’s symphonies with the Minnesota Orchestra. With four discs already released, they received a Grammy nomination for their recording of Symphony No.5, the first in the series. He opens his first season in Seoul with the composer’s Symphony No.2 and closes the season in Minnesota with Symphony No.9. With Minnesota, they previously recorded the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Sibelius, also for BIS, to excellent international reviews, winning a Grammy Award for ‘Best Orchestral Performance’ in 2014 and receiving further nominations.

Recent guest conductor invitations include renowned international ensembles such as The Cleveland, San Francisco Symphony and Toronto Symphony orchestras in North America; Orchestre de Paris, Berlin’s Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, SWR Sinfonieorchester and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Europe; and Shanghai Symphony, China Philharmonic, Hangzhou Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras in Asia.

Vänskä has been Principal Guest Conductor of Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2014 (after serving as Chief Conductor from 1993 to 1996) and Conductor Laureate of Lahti Symphony Orchestra since 2008 (following his previous period as Music Director since 1988). He also held the position of Chief Conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, between 1996 and 2002.

Vänskä studied conducting at Finland’s Sibelius Academy and was awarded first prize in the 1982 Besançon Competition. He began his career as a clarinetist, occupying the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He regularly performs in chamber music, having been invited to La Jolla Summerfest, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Naantali Summer Festival, Sysmä Summer Sounds, Music in Ruovesi, etc. He has recorded Bernhard Henrik Crusell’s three Clarinet Quartets and Kalevi Aho’s Clarinet Quintet for the BIS label and is in the process of recording several duos for clarinet and violin which he has commissioned with his wife, violinist Erin Keefe.

Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Finlandia Foundation’s Arts and Letters award, and the 2010 Ditson Award from Columbia University. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Minnesota and was named Musical America’s 2005 Conductor of the Year. In 2013 he received the Annual Award from the German Record Critics’ Award Association for his involvement in BIS’s recordings of the complete works by Sibelius.

Osmo Vänska - Harmonia Ubuntu [World Premiere] © Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo Vänska - Mahler Symphony No. 2 - Resurrection © Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo Vänska - Mahler's Fourth Symphony © Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo Vänska - Mahler's Fifth Symphony © Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo Vänska - Recording Mahler's Sixth Symphony © Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo Vänska - Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 © Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo Vänska - My North—Episode 12: Osmo Vänskä © Mpls.St.Paul Magazine

Osmo Vänskä discusses Sibelius © London Philharmonic Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä discusses Sibelius’ Symphonies © London Philharmonic Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä & The Minnesota Orchestra tour to Cuba © Minnesota Orchestra 2015

Osmo Vänska - interview © MN Original

“The synergetic success of the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vänskä makes their ongoing Mahler cycle a landmark event (…) From the opening bars of the first movement it is clear that Vänskä and the Minnesota players are on a mission. (…)The Minnesota Orchestra’s playing here is gorgeous and refined throughout.”

(ConcertoNet, January 2019)

“[On Mahler’s Symphony No.7] Osmo Vänskä has always been an energetic, dynamic conductor. Did we always know that he is also a supreme sifter and balancer of orchestral textures, a creator of tingling sonic subtleties? If not, we know it now.”

(Star Tribune, November 2018)

“But rare rewards awaited after intermission, for the Mahler Fourth was given the most exquisite interpretation of the several I’ve heard in concert. Vanska coaxed a paradoxical combination of force and gentleness from the opening movement, encouraging a light and frolicsome tone before seemingly crafting a dark, bitter concoction from the same ingredients. With delicious dynamic contrast — I’ve never heard the pianissimos so soft in this symphony — it was a performance both technically precise and full of emotion. I can’t recall the last time I was as deeply moved at a Minnesota Orchestra concert as I was by the third movement of the Mahler Fourth. What began in blissful beauty soon found the composer staring unblinking into sorrowful darkness, a place that Vanska and the orchestra made intensely troubling before emerging into a blast of bright major-key sunshine.”

(St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 2018)

“Vänskä took [Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1]’s entire expressive range in stride, leading a performance that was by turns drily entertaining (the first movement especially) and stirringly tender. The symphony’s formal restlessness, in particular, seemed to cause him no trouble at all.”

(The San Francisco Chronicle, October 2017)

“This was Osmo Vanska at his finest, seizing the reins of his orchestra with a complex and confident interpretation, and shaping the sound with high-energy body language and a level of attention to detail hard to achieve with such an expansive ensemble. And he was as engaging to watch as I’ve ever seen him, a virtual dervish on the podium.”

(St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 2017)

“Vänskä opened the work with concentrated majesty, an impressive depth of string sound informing the contribution of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.”

(Classical Source, May 2017)

“This was a performance of great intensity — not just because of some impetuous tempo changes and smart emotional pacing, but also through the lustrous ensemble sound the conductor had obviously cultivated. (…) The conductor had the trust of the orchestra, and charisma bloomed.”

(Philly.com, May 2017)

“The performance of the Sibelius was nothing less than hair-raising. Vänskä may have been conducting this music all his life, but he has lost nothing of the will to explore further, and still with an urgency and spontaneity that send shivers down one’s back. (…) Everything was gripping, from the big picture to the smallest detail. Only Vänskä could deliver a Sibelius symphony cycle that promises to be as exciting as this.”

(Financial Times, October 2016)

“Leaping about as if treading hot coals, Vänskä sculpted one of the sharpest, most belligerent readings of Sibelius’s Symphony No 1 that these ears have heard” *****

(The Times, October 2016)

“A complete cycle of the Sibelius symphonies, such as was embarked on by the LPO last night, is an attractive enough proposition in its own right. To have it conducted by Osmo Vanska, the composer’s compatriot and one of his finest interpreters today, makes it very special indeed. (…) The First Symphony in E minor may not be a masterpiece on the level of the later ones, but Vanska, with his taut rhythms and furious tempi, makes it a thrilling helter-skelter ride.”

(Evening Standard, October 2016)

“From the plunging energy of the opening of the Third Symphony to the bleak, raw ending of the Seventh, this is a gripping listen” *****

(The Guardian, July 2016)

“With these recordings, Vanska confirms his status as our greatest living Sibelian. Irreplaceable”

(Sunday Times, Hugh Canning, July 2016)

“This is one the world has been waiting for. The Minnesota Orchestra’s partnership with the Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä is a treasure of our times, especially when they play music of the frozen north. Minnesota is sufficiently remote from the rest of musical America to maintain its own sound and Vänskä, ever the iconoclast, has his own particular way of refreshing familiar scores. The start of their Sibelius cycle hit the decks with a whoosh five years ago.”

(Norman Lebrecht, July 2016)

“The LSO were on virtuoso form throughout, Vänskä unleashing a searing intensity in the opening movement while punching out the racy rhythms and raucous comedy of the finale with unstoppable momentum” *****

(The Guardian, George Hall, April 2015)