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The Finnish baritone, Juha Kotilainen, studied singing with Olavi Hautsalo and Matti Tuloisela at the Sibelius-Academy. He received his voice diploma in 1985 and has studied further at courses given by Thomas Hampson in Britain and Peter Berne in Austria.
Juha Kotilainen made his debut at the Finnish National Opera as Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola in 1986, and he has sung several roles at the FNO since then, including Count Almaviva in W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Jussi in Leevi Madetoja's Pohjalaisia/The Ostrobotnians and Marcello in La Bohème. His other roles include the title role in George Frideric Handel's Tamerlano and Figaro in The Barber of Seville. He was also acclaimed for his performance as Count Tomsky in The Queen of the Spades in Tampere. Future engagements at the Finnish National Opera (FNO) will be Escamillo in Georges Bizet's Carmen and The Mill foreman in Jenufa.
In 1990's Juha Kotilainen was engaged at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, where his roles included the title roles of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Guglielmo in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte and the title role in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, which he has also performed at the Bonn Opera and in Saar Music Festival as well as in Oulu Opera in 2006. In the 1996-1997 season, he also appeared as Gunther in Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
In spring 1996 Juha Kotilainen was invited again to the Tampere Opera, this time as Tonio Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, and he returned to the Finnish National Opera to appear as the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. In 1997, he appeared in the title role in Leevi Madetoja's Juha in Oulu Opera. In 1997-1999, he visited Savonlinna Opera Festival, as Alfio in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, and in the title role in Einojuhani Rautavaara's Aleksis Kivi. In few summers in 2000's he has been singing in the role of Puikkanen in Aulis Sallinen’s Horseman and their productions of new Finnish opera, The age of Dreams.
In 1999-2000 Juha Kotilainen was engaged to the Théàtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels for the role of Antigonus and later for the leading role Leontes in Philippe Doesmans' opera Wintermärchen. In 2000-2001 he also returned to the Finnish National Opera as Marcello in La Bohème, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and Captain in John Adam's opera Klinghoffer's Death. Other engagements in 2001 included a role e.g. in Boris Godunov at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and the Wintermärchen at Chatelet in Paris. 2002-2005 roles included e.g. Faninal in Rosenkavalier in Brussels, Police officer in Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth von Mzensk in Barcelona and Mamoud/ in Klinghoffer's Death, Mardyka in Arabella, Il Barone de Trombonok in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims and Count Tomsky in The Queen of the Spades in the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. In recent years he has premiered a number of Finnish new operas, among them Timo-Juhani Kyllönen’s Kuninkaiden kirja (Cadiz, 2009), Olli Kortekangas’ Isän tyttö (Savonlinna Opera Festival, 2007; FNO, 2009), Ilkka Kuusisto’s Taipaleenjoki (Ilmajoki Opera Festival, 2010-2012) Kimmo Hakola's La Fenice (Savonlinna Opera Festival, 2012) and Timo-Juhani-Kyllönen’s The Seal (Savonlinna Opera Festival, 2013).
Juha Kotilainen's repertoire also includes solo songs, from classical Lied to contemporary works and bass and baritone solo parts in major church music works. He has appeared in J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) and Haydn's Creation under Peter Schreier, in J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) under Harry Christophers and Peter Schreier and as an oratorio soloist under Esa-Pekka Salonen and many others. His engagements have included e.g. Orff's Carmina Burana, Sibelius' Kullervo, Sibelius' Karelia, Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ, Schubert's Mass E flat major and Schubert's Mass A flat major. He has sung e.g. Psalmus by Uuno Klami with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jahrezeiten by Haydn with the Lahti Symphony / Helmuth Rilling, L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Helsinki Philharmonic / Mikko Franck, Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder at the Helsinki Festival under the baton of Jukka-Pekka Saraste and semi-staged St.John Passion (BWV 245) with Peter Schreier at the Finnish National Opera. In 2004 he sang in Luciano Berio's Stanze scored for baritone with the Helsinki Philharmonic at Musica Nova Festival. In Spring 2012 he performed the world premiere of Olli Mustonen's first Symphony’s baritone part with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Tshaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in Moscow. He was also the soloist of the Symphony later in 2012 with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Future engagements performing Olli Mustonen's Symphony include concert with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in spring 2014. |
