As Chief Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen, Sofi Jeannin continues to shape the ensemble’s artistic profile through an ambitious season of touring, innovative programming and artistic exchange across Scandinavia, the Baltics, Spain and Germany. Last season, the ensemble toured a programme of music by Arvo Pärt and Palestrina, with performances across Europe, including at Brussels’ Flagey.
Jeannin returned to the Edinburgh International Festival in summer 2026, leading the Festival Chorus and Rising Stars in a programme celebrating American music. This followed her acclaimed Festival appearance in 2025, when she conducted Sir John Tavener’s epic eight-hour The Veil of the Temple with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, National Youth Choir of Scotland, NCOS Chamber Choir, Monteverdi Choir and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Recent highlights also include her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Eric Ericson Chamber Choir in Brahms’s Requiem; performances of Poulenc’s Gloria and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir; Handel’s Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Bach’s St John Passion with Sinfonia Lahti; James MacMillan’s Ordo Virtutum with NFM Choir Wrocław; and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Meg Blane with the RCM Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
She has appeared with orchestras such as the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aalborg Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Seattle Symphony, Singapore Symphony and New Japan Philharmonic, and collaborated with choirs including RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, the Swedish Radio Choir, DR VokalEnsemblet and Chamber Choir Ireland.
Jeannin led highly successful performances in her final season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers, including collaborations with the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris for a special concert at Notre-Dame Cathedral, with theAcademy of Ancient Music for Bach’s Mass in B minor, with Voices New Zealand and with Jess Gillam at Gateshead’s Glasshouse as part of the BBC Proms in summer 2026. Under her leadership, the ensemble premiered works by Missy Mazzoli, Shiva Feshareki and Nico Muhly, among others, and performed with South Asian dance company Akademi, British-Indian musician Soumik Datta, and South African cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe. The BBC Singers also received the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Ensemble Award during her tenure.
Jeannin’s post as Music Director of the Maîtrise de Radio France — the choir favoured by Messiaen and Dutilleux — gives her musical and pedagogical responsibility for 180 choristers. This season marks her 19th with the ensemble. Highlights include a performance at the Vatican, programmes of J.S. Bach with the Chœur de Radio France, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, premieres of new commissions by Helena Tulve and Philippe Hersant at Notre-Dame, and a version for equal voices of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneaspaired with a new commission by Iain Farrington. Last season, Jeannin and the Maîtrise celebrated the choir’s 80th anniversary with a major weekend of performances at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, bringing together generations of former and current choristers. With the Maîtrise, Jeannin has commissioned multiple new works, collaborating with composers including Kaija Saariaho, Peter Eötvös, John Adams, Thierry Escaich and Olga Neuwirth, and is regularly heard on broadcasts by France Musique.
Committed to education and outreach, Jeannin has worked with the chorus and orchestra of Kinshasa, Congo, and has been involved with El Sistema Greece since early 2017. She regularly gives workshops and masterclasses around the world.
Jeannin studied conducting and singing at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the Nice Conservatoire, and the Royal College of Music in London with Paul Spicer. She is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2025), Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite (2021) and Officier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques (2018). In 2023, she was awarded the Grand Prix Antoine Livio by the International Music Press Association in recognition of her work with the Maîtrise de Radio France. In recognition of her distinguished achievements in choral conducting, she was also awarded the highest honour of the Royal College of Organists, the RCO Medal, in 2025. She was also elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 2025.
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