BIO

Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev’s orchestral works form the forefront of his creative output, having been described as  “scored with panache and coursing with vitality” (Chicago Classical Review). Zinovjev has had commissions and performances from orchestras such as Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Finnish and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Tapiola Sinfonietta. He has collaborated with musicians such as Klaus Mäkelä, Víkingur Ólafsson, Tuuli Lindeberg, Pekka Kuusisto, Sakari Oramo, André de Ridder, and Hugo Ticciati.

The 2024/25 season sees a new Percussion Concerto written for Vivi Vassileva premiering with Beethoven Bonn Orchester, with further performances planned in February 2025 with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Gustavo Gimeno. A new piece for cello and piano commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and The Henry Barber Trust premieres with Santiago Canon Valencia in February 2025. Future commissions include new works for Helsinki and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with Zinovjev collaborating with artists including Alban Gerhardt, Leonkoro Quartet, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, and Nicolas Baldeyrou.

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The 2023/24 season saw the US premiere of Zinovjev’s Batteria (2016) with Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mäkelä, which was described as  “engaging and well-wrought” (Chicago Tribune) and  “an astonishingly assured debut” (Chicago Classical Review). Bamberger Symphoniker and Jukka-Pekka Saraste premiered Zinovjev’s Hit & Run (2021), in October 2023, commissioned following his year-long scholarship in 2021 at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg. A new trio entitled a love song for Boriso-Glebsky, Narek Hakhnazaryan and George Tchaidze premiered in February 2024 at Wiener Konzerthaus.

Other orchestral highlights include Zinovjev’s Double Concerto (2022), which premiered with Tapiola Sinfonietta, Simon Crawford-Phillips and Hugo Ticciati; an adagio (2022) with Sinfonia Lahti and Anna-Maria Helsing; Wiegenlied (2020) for Oslo Philharmonic, conducted by Mäkelä and co-commissioned Gothenburg Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic; and Piano Concerto (2019), which was commissioned by the Finnish and Swedish radio symphony orchestras and premiered with Mäkelä, Ólafsson, and FRSO in January 2021.

Zinovjev attended the Sibelius Academy and currently lives in Helsinki, Finland.