

Sofi Jeannin
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“The hero of those hours was Swedish conductor Sofi Jeannin.”
The Guardian, August 2025
Chief Conductor: BBC Singers
Music Director: la Maîtrise de Radio France
Chief Conductor: ARS NOVA Copenhagen
Renowned for her beautifully clear and succinct technique, and with a formidable knowledge of repertoire across all genres, Swedish born conductor Sofi Jeannin has established herself as one of the most respected choral specialists today. She currently serves as Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers, Chief Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen, and Music Director of the Maîtrise de Radio France since 2008. Jeannin was Music Director of the Chœur de Radio France from 2015 to 2018.
Alongside her regular commitments, Jeannin is in high demand as a guest conductor. Notably, in the 2025/26 season, she conducts Brahms’ Requiem with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Mozart Great Mass in C minor with Gulbenkian, Handel’s Messiah with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St John Passion with Sinfonia Lahti, James MacMillan’s Ordo Virtutum with NFM Wroclaw Choir and Poulenc’s Gloria and Coleridge-Taylor’s Meg Blane with the Royal College of Music orchestra.
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She conducted last summer the opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival with the epic 8 hours long The Veil of the Temple by Sir John Tavener, together with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, National Youth Choir of Scotland, NCOS Chamber Choir, Monteverdi Choir and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She is going back to the Edinburgh International Festival in summer 2026 with an American choral programme.
Recent highlights include appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Choral collaborations include the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Swedish Radio Choir, Nederlands Kamerkoor, DR VokalEnsemblet, Coro Casa da Musica, Chamber Choir Ireland and Sao Paulo Symphony Choir.
For her last season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers, Jeannin leads rich and varied programmes together with New Zealand Voices, and also with the Academy of Ancient Music for Bach’s Mass in B minor. Jeannin is regularly at the BBC Proms with the BBC Singers. Under her leadership, the ensemble has premiered works by Missy Mazzoli, Shiva Feshareki, and Nico Muhly. Notable collaborations include one with the Academy of Ancient Music and South Asian dance company Akademi, exploring the dances of Rameau with classical and contemporary Indian dance; with British-Indian Soumik Datta and his work Awaaz weaving Indian classical music, Bengali folk, Tagore and Partition songs; with South African cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe, and another one featured Poulenc’s iconic choral work Figure Humaine with jazz interpolations from BBC New Generation Artist Misha Mullov Abado.
This season, Jeannin brings Ars Nova Copenhagen for concerts celebrating Arvo Pärt and Palestrina anniversaries all over Denmark but also in Flagey Brussels and in Barcelona. Jeannin’s post of Music Director of la Maîtrise de Radio France – the choir favoured by Messiaen and Dutilleux – gives her musical and pedagogical responsibility for 180 choristers. This season is Jeannin’s 18th season with them and it’s also their 80th anniversary. With la Maîtrise, Jeannin has commissioned multiple new works, collaborating with composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Peter Eötvös, John Adams, Thierry Escaich and Olga Neuwirth, and is giving regular broadcasts on France Musique.
Committed to education and outreach work, Jeannin has worked with the chorus and orchestra of Kinshasa, Congo, and has also been involved in El Sistema, Greece, since early 2017. She regularly gives workshops and masterclasses around the world.
Jeannin studied conducting and singing at the Stockholm Royal College of Music, the Nice Conservatoire and then at the Royal College of Music, London, with Paul Spicer, and prepared the Chorus for conductors including Bernard Haitink, Peter Schreier and David Willcocks.
She is an Officer de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2025), Officer de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques (2018), and Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite (2021). She was awarded the Grand Prix Antoine Livio 2023 by the International Music Press Association, in recognition of her work with the Maîtrise de Radio France. In recognition of distinguished achievements in choral directing, she was also awarded the highest honour of the Royal College of Organists, the RCO Medal, in 2024. She is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in London since Autumn 2025.
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Season Highlights
Helsingør Domkirke
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CAROLINE SHAW: And the Swallow
GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA: Stabat Mater
WILLIAM BYRD: Ave Verum Corpus
RODERICK WILLIAMS: Ave Verum Corpus re-imagined
VAGN HOLMBOE: Miserere
MANUEL CARDOSO: Lamentations
NICO MUHLY: No Resting Place
Kammermusiksaal Philharmonie
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LILI BOULANGER: La Source
LILI BOULANGER: La tempête
LILI BOULANGER: Hymne au soleil
CECILE CHAMINADE: Air de ballet
FRANCIS POULENC: Sept Chansons
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Romance du soir
MEL BONIS: Mélisande
DANIEL LESUR: Cantique des Cantiques
Ars Nova Copenhagen
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SAMUEL BARBER: The Coolin'
DAVID LANG: For Love is Strong
LIBBY LARSEN: From a Lover's Journey, 1. In the still garden, 3. Will you, nill you
GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA: Canticum Canticorum, 8. Ecce tu pulcher es, 11. Sicut lilium inter spinas, 15. Surge, propera amica mea, 24. Descendi in hortum nucum
CAROLINE SHAW: Dolce Cantavi
MADDALENA CASULANA: Morir non può mio cuore
LOUIS ANDRIESSEN: Un beau baiser
DANIEL LESUR: Cantique des Cantiques
Edinburgh International Festival
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JOHN TAVENER: The Veil of the Temple
“Intense choral singing (Monteverdi Choir, Edinburgh Festival Chorus and particularly the astonishing National Youth Choir of Scotland), superbly marshalled by the conductor Sofi Jeannin.”
“Conductor Sofi Jeannin, onstage for all of it, glued the work into a thrilling journey.”
“But it was the musical performance conducted with truly heroic concentration by Sofi Jeannin that lifted the heart and mind.”
“The hero of those hours was Swedish conductor Sofi Jeannin. Jeannin put in a remarkable shift, staying on top of every detail of the spare instrumental score as well as building the remarkable edifice that the combined choirs eventually become.”
“Jeannin forged the disparate elements into a seamlessly unified whole. The choral singing, meanwhile, was breathtaking and glorious”
“Sofi Jeannin (the Swedish conductor of the BBC Singers) was securing the most expressive
performances imaginable.”
“Sofi Jeannin was an assured conductor”
“Jeannin ensured Stravinsky’s tight rhythmic precision and the ritualistic solemnity of the final chorale section” ★★★★★