Ruut Kiiski
Ruut Kiiski has worked with leading orchestras including, among others, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire. During year 2024 Ruut debuted in several Finnish orchestras and returned to conduct in the Jyväskylä Opera.
As a versatile musician with a long experience working with the voice, Ruut is particularly devoted to the hectic world of opera. Interest in contemporary and rearly performed music is also a strength that she uses especially when planning interesting and innovative concert programs.
Ruut has wanted to help bring up forgotten works of women composers, such as Germaine Tailleferre, Elfrida Andrée and Ethel Smyth. Her earlier work also includes contemporary opera and oratorio by women composers. In 2017, she led the première of Pauliina Isomäki’s oratorio Vuorisaarna (“Sermon on the Mount”) with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in their performance of the exceptional radio opera Queen of the Cold Land by Riikka Talvitie.
Ruut graduated in 2015 from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Before her time in Stockholm, Ruut completed her Master’s studies at the Sibelius Academy, completing diplomas in both choral conducting (2011) and church music (2008). Ruut has further developed her technique by attending international masterclasses with leading maestros including Valery Gergiev (Turku, 2016) and Herbert Blomstedt (Stockholm, 2015), where she led the Mariinsky Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.