With a “scrupulous ear for instrumental color and blend” (Washington Post) and bringing “a distinctive dynamism to the podium” (Baltimore Sun), Hannu Lintu continues his tenure as Chief Conductor of Finnish National Opera and Ballet. The appointment followed a series of hugely successful collaborations with the company including Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 2016, Sibelius’s Kullervo in 2017, Berg’s Wozzeck in 2019, and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 2020, reflecting Lintu’s shifting focus into the field of opera. In the past season he conducted Strauss’s Salome and Britten’s Billy Budd.
Lintu recently completed his eighth and final season as Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor. Highlights included Schumann’s Faust Szenen, Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust and the second-ever FRSO Festival – devoted in 2019 to new and large-scale works by national composer Magnus Lindberg.
Guest highlights of the 2022/23 season include the highly anticipated debut with New York Philharmonic and Atlanta Symphony and returns to Naples Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Lintu also guest conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Berlin, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Recent engagements include debuts with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra and returns to Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Radio France and DSO Berlin.
Lintu has made several recordings for Ondine, BIS, Naxos, Avie and Hyperion; recent releases include Magnus Lindberg’s orchestral works Aura and Marea together with the chamber work Related Rocks, the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Stephen Hough, Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten and Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz, Lutoslawski’s Symphonies Nos. 1 - 4 and works by Kaija Saariaho with Gerald Finley and Xavier de Maistre, all of which feature Lintu’s principal recording partner, the FRSO.
Lintu has received several accolades for his recordings, including two ICMA awards for Bartók’s Violin Concertos with Christian Tetzlaff (2019) and works by Sibelius featuring Anne Sofie von Otter (2018). The recording of Magnus Lindberg’s orchestral works Aura and Marea together with the chamber work Related Rocks (FRSO) is also nominated for the 2022 Gramophone award in the Contemporary category. He also received a 2021 GRAMMY nomination in the Best Orchestral Performance category for his recording of Lutoslawski’s Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3, a 2011 GRAMMY nomination for Best Opera CD (Rautavaara’s Kaivos), and Gramophone Award nominations for his recordings of Enescu’s Symphony No. 2 with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Lintu studied cello and piano at the Sibelius Academy, where he later studied conducting with Jorma Panula. He participated in masterclasses with Myung-Whun Chung at L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and took first prize at the Nordic Conducting Competition in Bergen in 1994.