Conductor
An artist with endless curiosity, Renaissance spirit and interdisciplinary ambitions! This is perhaps the best way to describe Jani Sivén (b. 1971), who is known as a conductor, countertenor, instructor and composer. Sivén is interested in the dialogue between different forms of art, and the integration of music, image and movement. In addition to opera and oratorio productions, he has conducted, for example, a dramatised version of St. John Passion by J. S. Bach, as well as different choreographic and visual concerts.
Jani Sivén graduated as Master of Music in the year 2000 from the Degree Program in Choral Conducting at the Sibelius Academy. He has further developed his skills in orchestral and choral conducting with, for example, Eric Ericson, Per Borin, Petri Sakari and Murry Sidlin. Sivén is especially fond of early music, which he has studied with numerous masters such as Andrew Lawrence-King, Peter Kooy, Evelyn Tubb, Päivi Järviö and Anders Öhrwall.
Sivén began his career as a musician early on by founding the Galante Youth Choir at the age of 16. Today, he is the artistic director of the Sinfonietta Soi orchestra, Audite Chamber Choir and Finland Choir Institute. He also works as a lecturer of orchestral and choral conducting at the Helsinki Conservatory of Music, and as the principal instructor of conducting at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia.
As a guest conductor, he has worked with the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir, the Latvian Radio Choir, the Finnish National Opera Choir, the Tapiola Choir, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, the early music orchestra Opus X, Pärnu City Orchestra, Lohja City Orchestra and Vantaa Orchestra.
In 1999, Sivén received the Best Conductor Award at the Chorus Review of the Tampere Vocal Music Festival. In 2000, the Association of Finnish Choir Conductors named him Conductor of the Year.
In 2002, Sivén’s first opera Troijan naiset (The Women of Troy) was premiered at the Helsinki Conservatory of Music and at the Hebbel Theatre in Berlin. In the spring of 2004, Sivén’s a cappella work for mixed choir, Fenestra Finnorum, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Finnish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, was performed at Villa Lante, Rome.