PÄIVI NISULA
Senta, soprano
 Päivi Nisula began her musical studies at the Conservatoire in her native Turku with piano as her main subject. Graduating from the Sibelius Academy after completing her opera training in 1991, she gave her debut concert as a mezzo-soprano in 1992. She had already become known to the public at large on winning the Timo Mustakallio Competition in 1989. She made her operatic debut in 1990.
In 1993 Päivi Nisula was named Opera Soloist of the Year by the Association of Finnish Operas and offered a solo contract at the Finnish National Opera. She has sung a number of the leading mezzo roles in Helsinki, among them Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos and Azucena in Il Trovatore, and has made guest appearances at the Savonlinna Opera Festival since 1991.
Since changing from mezzo to soprano, Päivi Nisula has appeared at the Finnish National Opera as Riitta in Joonas Kokkonen's The Last Temptations, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, and the title role in Puccini's Tosca - a part she first sang in Turku in 2004 to Juha Uusitalo's Scarpia. Last year she sang Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Her performance of Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal at the Finnish National Opera brought her great acclaim this spring. Forthcoming assignments at the FNO include Maddalena in Umberto Giordano's opera Andrea Chenier and the title role (in 2006) in the new opera Alice (The Hour of the Snake) by Mikko Heiniö.
In addition to appearing as soloist with Finnish orchestras, Päivi Nisula has sung in all the Nordic countries, Germany, Spain, the United States, Israel, Japan and Malaysia. She has, for example, been the soprano soloist in the Kullervo Symphony and Luonnotar by Jean Sibelius, and in the Symphony no. 3 by Carl Nielsen. Her repertoire also includes the Wesendonck Lieder by Richard Wagner.
Päivi Nisula has performed as the soloist with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra 17 times and in five opera performances. She already acquired a feel for the setting for this production of The Flying Dutchman back in 2002, when she joined Matti Salminen, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and the CCA in the centenary concert in honour of the Suomen Joutsen on the lower reaches of the River Aura. Her contributions on a nautical theme ranged from Senta's aria to Mickey Mouse (taking the bass part of the monster in the encore).
At the concert given by the City of Turku on Independence Day (December 6) this year Päivi Nisula will be singing songs by Jean Sibelius with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Juha Kangas.
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