Conductors

Ruut Kiiski

Kanttila ManagementExplore

The artist

In focus.

Ruut Kiiski has a particular interest in bringing overlooked works by women composers back to the concert stage, including music by Germaine Tailleferre, Elfrida Andrée and Ethel Smyth. Her work has also encompassed contemporary opera and oratorio by women composers. In 2017, Ms. Kiiski conducted the premiere of Pauliina Isomäki’s oratorio Vuorisaarna (Sermon on the Mount) with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and led the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Riikka Talvitie’s radio opera Queen of the Cold Land.

Ms. Kiiski graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2015. Prior to her studies in Stockholm, she completed her Master’s studies at the Sibelius Academy, receiving diplomas in choral conducting in 2011 and church music in 2008. She has further developed her conducting through international masterclasses with Valery Gergiev in Turku in 2016 and Herbert Blomstedt in Stockholm in 2015, working on these occasions with the Mariinsky Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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Ruut Kiiski · Conductor

At a Glance

Ruut Kiiski is an emerging Finnish conductor who has worked with orchestras including the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire. She is particularly committed to rediscovering overlooked works by women composers, alongside championing new music: in 2017, she conducted the premieres of Pauliina Isomäki’s oratorio Vuorisaarna with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Riikka Talvitie’s radio opera Queen of the Cold Land with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kiiski returned to Jyväskylä Opera in 2024 for Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, continuing a longstanding collaboration; her subsequent work includes Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Helsinki Metropolia University in 2025. She is also Artistic Director of the Tampere Philharmonic Choir.

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