Ville Rusanen

Ensemble: Former Finnish National Opera

Freelancer: Teatro alla Scala, Opéra de Lyon, Dutch National Opera, Luxembourg Opera

Finnish baritone Ville Rusanen began his musical training as a double bass player at the Kuopio Conservatory, where he also studied voice with his father. He went on to complete his vocal studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under the tutelage of renowned baritone Jorma Hynninen.

Mr. Rusanen has performed with leading international opera companies and orchestras. His operatic engagements include appearances at Teatro alla Scala, Opéra de Lyon, Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, and most recently, Luxembourg Opera, where he sang the role of Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos. On the concert stage, he has sung with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Philharmonique de Liège, Bergen Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. He made his Australian debut with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy and has also appeared at the BBC Proms in London and the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.

A frequent guest at the Finnish National Opera, Mr. Rusanen’s repertoire there includes Pelléas (Pelléas et Mélisande), the Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Billy Budd, the Phantom (The Phantom of the Opera), and Ping (Turandot). He is a regular presence at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, where he was named Artist of the Year in 2014. His roles there include the title roles in Aulis Sallinen’s Kullervo and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, the latter of which he reprised in 2023.

In recent seasons, Mr. Rusanen has performed the title role in Billy Budd at the George Enescu Festival and sang Sibelius’s Kullervo with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo. His first solo album, Polkuja – Songs from Finnish Nature, was released in collaboration with pianist Pami Karvonen.