Pannon Philharmonic

In the art world, it is to this day especially rare that a female conductor is standing in front of a symphonic orchestra; and the 31-years-young Eva Ollikainen, widely recognized as a conductor in the Nordic countries, who is coming to  Hungary on the invitation of the Pannon Philharmonic, is the first lady conducting the 200-year-old orchestra. Despite her young age, the Maestra has been in regular contact with orchestras like the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

The conductor lady, who - listening to her sister's piano playing – has been living with music virtually from her birth, began playing the piano at the age of three; and was 12 years old when she first conducted an orchestra. Her major concerts of the last season were: conducting the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and the New Japan Philharmonic.

The Maestra, debuted at the Royal Swedish Opera with The Shepherd’s Song by Ravel and The Nightingale by Stravinsky in 2008. At the Finnish National Opera, she conducted The Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. As the winner of the 2003 Jorma Panula Conducting Competition, she was invited to the Allianz Cultural Academy, where she had the opportunity to work with the London Philharmonic and Kurt Masurral and also with Christoph von Dohnányi. In 2006, as the co-conductor of the Tanglewood Music Center, she won recognition of the audience and the critics, as well. One of Eva Ollikainen’s masters was Jorma Panula, with whom the principal conductor of the orchestra of Pécs, Tibor Bogányi studied, too.

The Finnish conductor consider sthemselves fortunate for having been born in a permissive country, where being a woman have meant neither positive nor negative distinction during her career. Among her conductor role models aren’t any female conductor; the living conductors who have had the greatest influence on her were Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Antonio Pappano, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.
At her most recent performance at the Royal Swedish Opera, she conducted The Nutcracker; and after the concert in Pécs, she is going to conduct symphony concerts in the Nordic countries and one the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. An especially interesting thing is about the Maestra’s concert with the Pannon Philharmonic that Eva Ollikainen is conducting two works that are evoking famous female figures.

Besides the classical music, Eva Ollikainen has another love: sailing. Recently, she has let rest her baton for  two years – to have a voyage on a classic sailboat to the South Pole and South Africa, and also has learned the intricacies of building traditional sailing ships.

"For our orchestra, it is always a challenge to explore new professional directions. It is for the first time that we play with a female conductor, who provides not only specialty femininity, but also the professionalism with that she interprets the Finnish composer Sibelius’s works. More than half of the Pannon Philharmonic’s musicians are women so it is really exiting whether the artists of the orchestra are going to have such experience during the rehearsal process that it is different to work together with a female than with a male conductor "- said Zsolt Horváth, the Pannon Philharmonic’s director.