Jorma Hynninen

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Jorma Hynninen (born 3 April 1941 in Leppävirta, Finland) is a Finnish baritone. He studied from 1966 to 1970 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and also took lessons from Luigi Ricci in Rome and Kurt Overhoff in Salzburg. Since then he has been a soloist at the Finnish National Opera (1970-90) and musical director (1984-90). He has also sung in various other countries.

In 1969 he won first prize the Lappeenranta Solo Voice Competition and competition in 1969 and made his opera debut with the Finnish National Opera in the same year as Silvio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. In 1971 he took first prize in the Scandinavian Singing Competition held in Helsinki and in 1996 won the Cannes Classical Award.

Jorma Hynninen sang at his first public concert in 1970 in Helsinki and made his debut the same year with the Finnish National Opera Company, in which he became a permanent member. His more notable roles include Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze de Figaro, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande his debut at the Paris Opera, and which he frequently sang at the Hamburg State Opera House. His international career includes performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Vienna Opera, Milan's La Scala, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, as well as Paris, Hamburg, Barcelona, Geneva and Berlin.

Hynninen first came to notice in the US in 1980 through his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. In 1984 he made his Metropolitan debut as Rodrigo in Don Carlos. In 1987 he was hailed as a 'perfect Wolfram' in the Met's Tannhäuser. He has also served as Artistic Director for the Finnish National Opera from 1984 to 1990 and became artistic director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland. Since 1996 he has been Professor of Voice at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In addition, he found time between 1980 and 1991 to serve as Artistic Director of the Joensuu Song Festival.

Jorma Hynninen has combined his operatic career with regular appearances in the concert hall with the world’s leading orchestras and maestros such as Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Mazur, and Salonen. His recital appearances include the major cities of Europe and North America.

His support of national music is reflected by such performances as the world premiere of Aleksis Kivi by Einojuhani Rautavaara, in which Mr Hynninen sang the title role for the Savonlinna Opera Festival (of which he is Artistic Director) , and The Age of Dreams (Aika ja uni ) composed as an operatic trilogy by three Finnish composers

, Herman Rechberger (b. 1947), Olli Kortekangas (b. 1955), and Kalevi Aho (b. 1949) and presented on the stage of medieval Olavinlinna Castle on 15 July 2000.

Hynninen's discography runs into three figures. He has recorded Finnish opera extensively, along with works from the international repertoire, Lieder collections, and religious music.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY:

Brahms:Ein Deutsches Requiem, with Klaus Tennstedt (EMI)

Dallapiccola:Il Progionero ('The Prisoner'), with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Sony)

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, with Riccardo Muti (EMI)

BEETHOVEN / MOZART / WAGNER / MUSSORGSKY: Opera Scenes (Naxos)

CONTEMPORARY FINNISH MUSIC (Naxos)

FINNISH VOCAL MUSIC (Naxos)

NUMMI: 5 Song Cycles BIS-(Naxos)

SALLINEN: Chamber Music (Naxos)

SCHUBERT: Winterreise, Op. 89, (Naxos)

SIBELIUS (The Essential) (Naxos)

SIBELIUS: Kullervo, Op. 7 (Naxos)

SIBELIUS: Maiden in the Tower (The) / Karelia Suite (Naxos)

SIBELIUS: Orchestral Songs (Naxos)

SIBELIUS: Sibelius Edition, Vol. 3 - Voice and Orchestra (Naxos)

Rautavaara:Vincent, with Fuat Mansurov and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Ondine)

Sallinen: Kullervo, with Ulf Söderblom and the Finnish National Opera and Chorus (Ondine)

Sallinen: The Red Line, with Okko Kamu and the Finnish National Opera and Chorus

Sibelius: Kullervo, with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra (Sony)