baritone

Gabriel Suovanen

Gabriel Suovanen was born in Stockholm, where he began playing the violin at the age of 4. He studied singing at the Sibelius Academy in 1993-94. He graduated from the Stockholm Opera School in the 1997-98 season. Gabriel Suovanen has won several prizes in distinguished singing competitions. In Finland he won the prestigious Timo Mustakallio singing competition in 1998 and was given the first Karita Mattila Award in 2000. In 1997-98 Gabriel Suovanen was appointed 'Soloist of the year' by the Swedish National Radio and subsequently appeared in several radio concerts and studio recordings with orchestra and as soloist. In the season 1998-99 he was engaged in several productions at the Stockholm Royal Opera. Suovanen made his debut at the Finnish National Opera as Guglielmo, at the Savonlinna Opera Festival as Valentin and at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Bizet's Carmen.

In the summer of 2000 Gabriel sang the title role in the world premiere of the opera Paavo Nurmi by Tuomas Kantelinen, performed at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. In 2001 he debuted at the Liceu Opera in Barcelona in Britten's Billy Budd. From 2002 until 2004 Gabriel Suovanen joined the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin where he sang Don Fernando, Papageno, Don Giovanni and Jewgeni Onegin. Recent engagements include Ping in Turandot at the Savonlinna Festival in 2003-04 and two world premières: Rasputin by Einojuhani Rautavaara in autumn 2003 in Helsinki alongside with Matti Salminen and Maros's Kastrat at the Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm in Drottningholm Palace Theater in June 2004.

In spring 2006 he was praised by the international press of singing the title role in Kullervo by Aulis Sallinen in Bern. In summer 2006 he made a role debut as Papageno at the Savonlinna Festival. In autumn 2006 Suovanen sang Onegin in Helsinki alongside with Soile Isokoski, and Gunther in Götterdämmerung at the Stockholm Royal Opera. In 2007 he performed in Pacius's The Hunt of King Charles at the Finnish National Opera.

In addition to his progressing opera career, Suovanen also enjoys performing Lied and concerts. His recent concert engagements include among others concert performances of Schumann's Genoveva in Helsinki and Gabriel Fauré's Requiem with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Barbara Bonney in San Francisco. He also sang Schubert's Winterreise with Ralf Gothoni.