Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Conductor

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“… he is the real thing: music unmistakably flows from him.”
(Sunday Times)

Chief Conductor: Gothenburg Symphony
Artistic Director and Chief Conductor: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor: Philharmonia Orchestra

The 2017/18 season sees Santtu-Matias Rouvali begin two new tenures; Chief Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, alongside these positions he continues his longstanding Chief Conductor-ship with the Tampere Philharmonic close to his home in Finland. Hailed by The Guardian as “the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition,” until last season Santtu-Matias Rouvali was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic.

Rouvali has upcoming debuts with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Münchner Philharmoniker and Orquesta Nacionale de España in Madrid, as well as regular relationships with other orchestras across Europe, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and has ambitious touring plans with his own orchestras over the next few seasons in Europe, Japan and North America. His first season as Chief Conductor in Gothenburg includes a substantial Nordic tour with pianist Hélène Grimaud.

Previously a Dudamel Fellow at the conducting programme with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, last season he made a triumphant return as a highlight of their subscription season, alongside other American debuts with the Minnesota and Cincinnati symphony orchestras.

In June 2017, as Chief Conductor-designate, he joined Gustavo Dudamel and the Gothenburg Symphony in their El Sistema Side by Side project with the Gothenburg Symphony, which has been a hugely successful summer camp for children and young people.

As another cornerstone to his tenure in Gothenburg, he looks forward to adding his mark to the Orchestra’s impressive recording legacy. Rouvali’s latest disc – of Nielsen and Sibelius’ violin concertos is with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Baiba Skride – was released in summer 2015 on ORFEO. Rouvali has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic since 2013, and in addition to his other recordings, highlights of the tenure so far include a Sibelius symphony cycle in autumn 2015, and the Orchestra’s first tour to Japan in spring 2017 where they were accompanied by an exhibition of original Moomin drawings by Tove Jansson to mark the opening of the new museum at the Tampere Hall.

Alongside an extremely busy symphonic conducting career, as Chief Conductor in Tampere he has conducted Verdi’s La forza del destino with Tampere Opera and his next project with them, in spring 2018, is a world première of Olli Kortekangas’s My Brother’s Keeper (Veljeni vartija) with Tampere Opera.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali appointed new Chief Conductor at Gothenburg Symphony © GSOPlay

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Nielsen: Helios (excerpt) with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra © GSOPlay

Santtu-Matias Rouvali - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4 (excerpt) © Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

“…he opened his account with the Philharmonia Orchestra as joint Principal Guest Conductor in a colourful all-Russian programme showing amazing physicality as he floated dance-like around the podium with clear, baton direction but with real intent and genuine musicality.”

(Bachtrack, Mark Thomas, October 2017)

“Rouvali was the bard and sage of the hour. He got a standing ovation, deservedly.”

(Classical Source, Ateş Orga, September 2017)

“Rouvali’s imaginative, often spectacular musicality is exceptional even in an era with a number of remarkable young conductors.”

(Los Angeles Times, November 2016)

“No wonder the applause was tremendous and that many afterward danced on light feet into the evening.”

(Göteborgs-Posten, April 2016)

“…he is the real thing: music unmistakably flows from him.”

(Sunday Times, January 2016)

“Rouvali conducts full of energy, and is a craftsman in the truest sense of the word.”

(Erlanger Nachrichten, December 2015)

“The Tampere orchestra sounds clean, supple and boisterous under its young chief conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. He, meanwhile, is the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition.”

(The Guardian, September 2015)

“Rouvali, 29, a product of the renowned Finnish conducting school in Helsinki, left a long-lasting impression on his Bern debut…Rouvali led the orchestra in a striking and gripping interpretation of Sibelius 1, which expressed the brusqueness and ruggedness of the work.”

(Berner Zeitung, January 2015)