Martti Rousi

Martti Rousi is one of the leading cellists of his generation. He is internationally known both as a soloist and a pedagogue. After playing piano for 2 years Martti Rousi begun his cello studies inspired by the strong Finnish cello school. His early teachers were Timo Hanhinen and Seppo Kimanen. In 1979 he moved to the Sibelius- Academy to continue his studies with Prof Arto Noras. At age of 21, he won the first prize at Turku cello competition and was invited as a soloist by all major Finnish symphony orchestras. In 1985 he received Fulbright scholarship to study with Prof Janos Starker at the Indiana University winning the annual cello competition there. Between 1977 and 1983 he regularly had masterclasses with William Pleeth and Valter Deshpalj and took private lessons with Natalia Gutman.

In 1986 Rousi won the silver medal at the VIII Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow. Since that he has been  performing with leading Scandinavian and European  orchestras like Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo Radio symphonies,Copenhagen Philharmonic,CBSO in Birmingham, Mariinsky orchestra,Moscow Symphony, Polish and Hungarian national orchestras, Statsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfaltz, Shanghai and Johannesburg Philharmonic working with conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen, Valeri Gergiev, Okko Kamu, Osmo Vänskä, Sakari Oramo, Olli Mustonen, Ari Rasilainen, Leif Segerstam,  Emmanuel Krivine, Bernhart Klee, Joseph Swensen and Muhai Tang. Rousi has an extensive repertoire with smaller orchestras from baroque to modern appearing with Moscow, Munich, Ostrobotnia, Tallinn and Toulouse chamber orchestras.

During 1990s Rousi played in piano trio with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Peter Nagy, performing also Beethoven triple and Brahms double concertos. In recitals, he appears with pianists like Olli Mustonen, Kathryn Stott, Henri Sigfridsson, Laura Mikkola, Massimo Somenzi and Juhani Lagerspetz. He is also invited to many leading chamber music festivals all over the world. Between 1993 and 2009 Rousi was the artistic director of Turku music festival, during his years many legendary artists like Svjatoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Azkenazy, Valeri Gergiev and Lang Lang appeared there. In 2010 he became the artistic director of SIBAFEST in Helsinki, 2010-2011 he was artistic director of Sibelius –series at Verkatehdas in Hämeenlinna. 2012 he was named artistic director of Suvisoitto in Sysmä.