About this Artist

A rising star in the constellation of brilliant young Finnish conductors, HANNU LINTU has recently been appointed Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic. His duties will begin there in August of 2009. Working extensively in Europe and the rest of the world, Lintu has made guest appearances with the Bergen Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, the Danish Radio Symphony, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Stavanger Symphony, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony, and he regularly conducts all the major orchestras in his native Finland. Outside Europe, he has recently worked with the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan, the New Zealand Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Sydney Symphony, and the Vancouver Symphony, Festival appearances include the Adelaide Festival, the Berliner Festspiele, the Flanders Festival, the Grant Park Festival, and the Golden Autumn Festival in Beijing.

During the 2007/08 season, Lintu opened the season for the Copenhagen Philharmonic, and made his debuts with the symphonies of Houston, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Phoenix, and San Antonio. He also appeared with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Orquestra Nacional do Porto, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and returned to the Finnish Radio Symphony, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic, the Oregon Symphony, and the Sinfonia Lahti.

Equally at home in opera, Hannu Lintu has conducted several productions for the Finnish National Opera, including Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Wagner’s Parsifal, Aulis Sallinen’s King Lear, and Kalevi Aho’s Before We Are All Drowned. In 2004, he conducted a concert performance of Gianni Schicchi at the Grant Park Festival in Chicago and recorded Tauno Pylkkanen’s opera Mare and Her Son. Future opera engagements include La Traviata and a new opera by Mikko Heiniö, The Snake’s Moment.

For Ondine and Naxos, Lintu has released CDs of works by Rautavaara, Saariaho, and Luca Francesconi with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Orchestra, and the Danish National Radio Orchestra. He has made two recordings with the Helsingborg Symphony for Danacord: “The Sound of Shakespeare” and the two piano concertos of Shostakovich with pianist Oleg Marshev. Recent releases include works by the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra for Ondine and works by Schumann, Dietrich, Gernsheim, and Volkmann on Hyperion with the Berlin Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester.

Lintu has held artistic director positions with the Helsingborg Symphony, the Turku Philharmonic, and the Bergen Collegium Musicum Chamber Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and was the artistic director of their 2005 Summer Sounds Festival, reflecting his strong commitment to contemporary music.

Born in Finland, Hannu Lintu began his musical studies with cello and piano at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He continued there to study conducting with Eri Klas and Jorma Panula, and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Italy with Myung-Whun Chung. In 1994, Lintu was first-prize winner at the Nordic Conductor’s Competition in Bergen, Norway.