Artistic Advisor Ville Matvejeff
Ville Matvejeff is a strong artistic figurehead for Jyväskylä Sinfonia both in Finland and abroad. He has implemented an open-minded approach to programming, offering audiences both unforgettable classics and the cutting edge of contemporary music with premieres. He has been responsible for the artistic development of the orchestra and the programming in collaboration with the general manager and the programme committee.
During Matvejeff's tenure, the orchestra has recorded a significant amount of Finnish music, including music by Aulis Sallinen, Olli Virtaperko and Per-Henrik Nordgren. Matvejeff has also developed the production and activities of Jyväskylä Opera during his tenure as chief conductor, which has raised the level of artistic realisation of the opera with four different opera productions under his direction (Mozart: Don Giovanni, Bizet: Carmen, Puccini: La bohème and Joonas Kokkonen: The Last Temptations).
In addition, Ville Matvejeff has invited to Jyväskylä some of the most important soloists and conductors in our field, including Guy Braunstein, Lise de La Salle, Víkingur Ólafsson, Camilla Nylund, Matti Salminen, Jaakko Ryhänen and Mika Kares. One of the most notable visits to the festival was to Turku Music Festival in 2014, when the orchestra was joined by world-renowned tenor Jonas Kaufmann as soloist. Ville Matvejeff is the chief conductor beloved by Jyväskylä concert audiences and his collaboration with the orchestra has been excellent. After a long period as chief conductor, the collaboration with Ville Matvejeff continues in the role of artistic advisor.
Biography
Ville Matvejeff (b. 1986) has become known as an exceptionally versatile and wide-ranging musician - as a conductor, composer and pianist. One of the most successful Finnish musicians of his generation, Matvejeff has studied at the Espoo Music Academy and the Sibelius Academy.
Matvejeff served as the Chief Conductor of Jyväskylä Sinfonia during 2014-2022 and continued as the Artistic Advisor. He began also as the artistic director of Savonlinna Opera Festival in autumn 2019 and as the chief guest of Norrlandsoperan in autumn 2022. From 2014 to 2020, Matvejeff worked at the Croatian National Theatre Ivan Zajc in Rijeka as chief guest and from 2016 to 2018 he was artistic director of the Turku Music Festival.
Ville Matvejeff made his debut in 2021/22 with Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and Gothenburg Opera, and in recent years he has appeared with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Duisburg Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Slovenian Radio Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Sonderjyllands Symphony Orchestra.
In Finland, Matvejeff has conducted almost all Finnish orchestras, including Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Kuopio City Orchestras, Sinfonia Lahti, Oulu Sinfonia, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta and Avanti Chamber Orchestra. Matvejeff has conducted a diverse opera repertoire ranging from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Aribert Reimann's Lear to contemporary productions such as Kimmo Hakola's Akseli (starring Jorma Hynninen) and Mikko Heiniö's Eerik XIV. In 2017, Matvejeff conducted concert performances of Parsifal at Turku Music Festival, starring Klaus Florian Vogt, Karita Mattila and Matti Salminen, and made his debut at Savonlinna Opera Festival, conducting the premiere of Aulis Sallinen's opera Linna vedessä.
Matvejeff, a multi-talented musician, made his debut as a piano soloist with Radio Symphony Orchestra at the age of 18 and has also appeared as a piano partner of soprano Karita Mattila since 2012. As a composer, Matvejeff has been commissioned by Finnish Chamber Orchestra and Radio Symphony Orchestra, for whom he composed a violin concerto for the opening of the Helsinki Music Hall in September 2011. Matvejeff's passion for the human voice has led him to compose a considerable amount of vocal music. His orchestral works Ad Astra and the cello concerto Crossroads have been recorded on the Alba label.
