Hannu Lintu (b. 1967) is one of Finland’s most successful and prominent conductors. In Finland, he has served as chief conductor in Turku and Tampere, and from 2013 to 2021 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra. His tenure as chief conductor of the Finnish National Opera Orchestra, which began in 2022, will end next summer. Abroad, he conducted the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2005, and since 2023 he has been chief conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon. He will join the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in August 2026. As a guest conductor, Lintu has led some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, and the French and Bavarian Radio Orchestras.

Lintu began his role as artistic partner of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Sibelius Festival in the fall of 2025. Lintu’s relationship with the orchestra began even before the Sibelius Hall was completed, in 1995, when he was still a student. Lintu has since conducted the Lahti Symphony Orchestra regularly for 25 years. His relationship with the orchestra has deepened year by year.

One of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s major projects is to record all eight symphonies by Einojuhani Rautavaara, as well as the works Cantus Arcticus and Angels and Visitations, under Lintu’s baton for the Swedish label Bis.

“Rautavaara was a significant Finnish symphonist, and each of his symphonies is different and exceptional. There is no clear progression in them; instead, they swing wildly from one extreme to the other. Just like Rautavaara as a composer in general,” says Lintu.