Iceland Symphony Orchestra & Eva Ollikainen
Biography Iceland Symphony Orchestra & Eva Ollikainen
Eva Ollikainen
With her elegant, expressive body language, natural stage presence and infectious musicality, Eva Ollikainen is one of the leading conductors of our time. She has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2020. Previously, she was Chief Conductor of the Nordic Chamber Orchestra.
Eva Ollikainen has appeared with orchestras such as the Wiener Symphoniker, DSO Berlin, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. She has also conducted at the Semperoper Dresden, Royal Danish Opera, Gothenburg Opera, Kungliga Operan Stockholm and the Finnish National Opera.
Highlights of the 22/23 season include her debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall as well as the Hollywood Bowl, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, and an extensive UK tour with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic's centenary concert. Her debut at the 2022 Proms, which included the world premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's ARCHORA, was hailed as a "performance of bold gestures and striking colours" by the Guardian.
A former student of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy, Eva Ollikainen won the Jorma Panula Conducting Competition at the age of 21. Today, the support of young musicians is close to her own heart. She teaches regularly at the Sibelius Academy and frequently leads master classes at institutions such as the Peabody Institute and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She founded the Iceland Symphony Orchestra Conductors' Academy in 2021.
