Ville Rusanen

Finnish baritone Ville Rusanen began his musical studies as double bass player at the Kuopio Conservatory (Finland) where he also studied singing with his father as his first teacher. Singing had become his major by the time he continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with baritone Jorma Hynninen.

Ville Rusanen’s operatic career highlights include performances at the Teatro alla Scala (Italy), the Lyon Opera (France) and the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. He made his Australian debut with the Sydney Philharmonic conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has also performed at the BBC Proms Festival in London, the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, as well as with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre National Bordeaux (France), NHK Symphony Orchestra (Japan), Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonique de Liège (Belgium) , Bergen Philharmonic and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Ireland.

Recently Rusanen made his debut at the Luxembourg Opera as ‘Harlequin’ in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss and released his first solo album Polkuja – songs from Finnish nature with pianist Pami Karvonen.

Ville Rusanen was chosen the Savonlinna Opera Festival’s Artist of the Year 2014 and has since performed regularly on Savonlinna stage where his roles include the title roles of Aulis Sallinen’s Kullervo and Rossini’s Barber of Seville, a role in which he returned to Savonlinna in 2023.

Ville Rusanen is a regular guest at the Finnish National Opera where his list of roles includes ‘Pelléas’ of Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande,, ‘Forester’ of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, title role in Benjamin Britten ́s Billy Budd and the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. His most recent appearance at the Finnish National Opera stage was Ping of Puccini ́s Turandot.

Recently he sang the title role in Britten ́s Billy Budd at the George Enescu Festival and performed Sibelius Kullervo with Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo.