Jyväskylä Sinfonia, St. Michel Strings & Ville Matvejeff - Pekka Kostiainen: Triduum Paschale (2020) [CD-Rip]

Born 1986 in Finland, Ville Einar Matvejeff has already established himself as an exceptionally wide-ranging musician enjoying success as conductor, composer and pianist. He trained at the Sibelius Academy (M.Mus.) and Espoo Music Institute and has performed throughout Europe as well as the USA, China, Japan and Mexico.

Matvejeff's conducting career is progressing rapidly. In January 2014 he assumed the position of Chief Conductor of Jyväskylä Sinfonia, renewed last year until the end of 2019. Since September 2014 he has worked as the Principal Guest Conductor and Music Advisor of Croatian National Theatre HNK Zajc in Rijeka, and this year includes re-invitations from the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Oulu Sinfonia amongst others, as well as debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, Sonderjylland Symphony Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta. Previous symphonic conducting appearances include Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Malmö Opera Orchestra and the Pori Sinfonietta. He has developed a broad repertoire extending from the classical through to the 20th century and contemporary; a bass-baritone with solo performances on both concert and opera stages to his credit, he is equally conversant with choral repertoire.

Matvejeff was recently appointed Artistic Director of Turku Music Festival from 2016 on, the oldest continuously run classical music festival in Finland, and is Founder and Artistic Director of New Generation Opera; presenting ambitious and technologically innovative performances, the company recently appeared at the Helsinki Festival with its cutting edge production of Don Giovanni. He made his opera debut in September 2011 at Pori Opera with critically acclaimed performances of Purcell’s Fairy Queen and has held positions at the Malmö Opera and the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm as well as working as assistant with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Leif Segerstam. He has conducted a diversity of repertoire ranging from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila and Aribert Reimann’s Lear, as well as contemporary works such as Kimmo Hakola’s Akseli with Jorma Hynninen in the title role and Mikko Heiniö’s Eerik XIV.

A musical polymath, Matvejeff is also a pianist and composer. He made his concert debut as pianist at the age of 18 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Susanna Mälkki and has since toured the world in duo recital partnership with soprano Karita Mattila with appearances at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Salle Pleyel and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London and Zürich Opera. As a composer, he has recently received commissions from the Finnish Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, for whom he wrote his Violin Concerto to celebrate the inauguration of the Helsinki Music Centre in September 2011; the recording of his orchestral works Ad Astra and Cello Concerto Crossroads released on the Alba label was named "Q2 Music Album of the Week" in March 2015 by WQXR Radio Station in New York City. His passion for the human voice has also led him to write a substantial amount of choral music.