Santtu-Matias Rouvali
will succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as Principal Conductor in the 2021/22 season. He continues as Chief Conductor of Gothenburg Symphony, and retains his longstanding Chief Conductor position with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra close to his home in Finland.

His international profile continues to flourish, with debuts this season with New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in wide-ranging repertoire. In New York he conducts the New York premiere of Bryce Dessner’s Wires, and at the Concertgebouw he conducts the world premiere of a new piece by Theo Verbey, as well as Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. In Berlin he is looking forward to performing Ravel’s piano concerto in G minor with Alice Sara Ott, alongside Sieblius Symphony 1.

He has built a loyal following internationally; after successful tour concerts in Vienna with Gothenburg Symphony last season he returns there to conduct the Wiener Symphoniker and Nicola Benedetti. In 19/20 he returns to several orchestras across Europe, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Rouvali’s Gothenburg season opened with a programme featuring Leif Ove Andsnes, the orchestra’s Artist in Residence for 2019/20.

Following last season’s successful tour of Germany and Austria with Alice Sara Ott and Martin Grubinger, Rouvali and Gothenburg Symphony are back on the road in February 2020 touring Japan. Together with violinist Fumiaki Miura and pianist Mari Kodama, they perform works by Shostakovich, Beethoven and Sibelius across eight major cities from Fukuoka to Tokyo.

Rouvali also accompanied the Philharmonia Orchestra on a tour to the Canary Islands in January 2020, performing in Gran Canaria and Tenerife as part of the Canary Islands Festival. In London, highlights of his Philharmoni season include extracts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Prokofiev’s Symphony 5 as well as Sibelius Symphony 5, alongside soloists Nikolay Lugansky, Behzod Aburaimov and Nemanja Radulovic.