Santtu-Matias Rouvali
conductor
The 2026–27 season continues Santtu‑Matias Rouvali’s tenures as principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and honorary conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, close to his home in Finland.
Rouvali maintains a strong presence in North America, returning to major US orchestras including The Cleveland Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, and making his San Francisco Symphony debut. In addition to his work in the United States, he appears widely across Europe, with engagements including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Tonhalle‑Orchester Zürich, alongside continued collaborations with other leading orchestras across the continent.
Rouvali collaborates with a wide range of internationally renowned soloists, including Víkingur Ólafsson, Sol Gabetta, Hilary Hahn, Lisa Batiashvili, Seong‑Jin Cho, Jean‑Yves Thibaudet, Augustin Hadelich, and Gil Shaham.
Rouvali and the Philharmonia Orchestra toured the United States in October 2025 and Korea in December 2025. Continuing their strong touring tradition, they embark on an extensive European tour, with concerts in cities including Cologne, Dortmund, and Munich in May 2027.
The 2024–25 season marked Rouvali’s final year as chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, following a highly successful eight‑year tenure. It included a tour to Germany and the Czech Republic, followed by a celebratory concert in Gothenburg. This season, Rouvali and Gothenburg complete their acclaimed Sibelius recording cycle on Alpha Classics with Kullervo, following the release of the Violin Concerto with Ava Bahari in 2026. These recordings have received widespread critical acclaim, earning awards including the Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award, Choc de Classica, a prize from the German Record Critics, the prestigious Diapason d’Or Découverte, and Radio Classique’s TROPHÉE.
Philharmonia Records’s first release, the double‑CD album Santtu Conducts Strauss, was issued in March 2023, followed by recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony on Signum Classics. Mahler’s Second Symphony, the second release on the Philharmonia label, appeared in September 2023, followed by Santtu Conducts Stravinsky in March 2024. Another significant release — Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Benjamin Grosvenor, Nicola Benedetti, and Sheku Kanneh‑Mason — was released on Decca in May 2024.