Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Principal Conductor
Santtu-Matias Rouvali first conducted the Philharmonia in 2013, aged 27, and made quite an impression on our players. They elected him Principal Conductor from September 2021. He is just the sixth person to hold that title since the Orchestra was founded in 1945.
He has already conducted a wide range of music with the Philharmonia, from blockbusters by Strauss and Rachmaninov to lesser known works by his compatriots Sibelius and Lindberg. We’ve released our first recordings with him, he made his BBC Proms debut with us in summer 2022, and he has played with our percussion section a couple of times too!
This season Santtu conducts ten London concerts, and takes the Orchestra to our other residency venues in Bedford, Leicester, Basingstoke and Canterbury, and on tour to Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.
When he’s not conducting, Santtu loves to spend time meditating, foraging and hunting in the forests around his home near Tampere.
“It’s a rare thing to have such an instant rapport with a conductor and we are all extremely lucky.” (Victoria Irish, member of the First Violin section).
Check out our YouTube channel for interviews and performances featuring Santtu.
