About

Top prize-winner of the 2023 Kodály International Conducting competition, Mateusz Gwizdałła (he/him) is an Australian-Polish conductor-composer based in Helsinki, Finland. He is currently finishing his Masters studies at the Sibelius Academy with prof. Sakari Oramo. This year Mateusz debuts with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jyväskylä Sinfonia and Sigyn Sinfonietta, and is conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in their internal composition workshops with the Sibelius Academy.

Apart from Oramo, his teachers have included Johannes Schlaefli, Jorma Panula, Kenneth Montgomery, Martyn Brabbins, Eva Ollikainen, Antony Hermus, Dima Slobodeniouk, Anna-Maria Helsing, Hannu Lintu, Leo McFall, Christoph Altstaedt, Luke Dollman and Benjamin Northey, among others. He previously studied conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland, under prof. dr hab. Monika Wolińska, and he holds a double degree Bachelor of Jazz Composition and Bachelor of Performing Arts (theatre making) from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

In Finland, Mateusz has performed with the Tampere Philharmonic, Oulu Sinfonia, Joensuu City Orchestra, Vaasa City Orchestra, and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. In Poland, he has worked and performed with the Sinfonia Iuventus in Warsaw, Szczecin Philharmonic, the Białystok Opera and Philharmonic, and the Szczecin Opera house Opera na Zamku where he held a 2 year tenure as assistant conductor, conducting productions of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and Gounod’s opera Romeo et Juliette. Additionally, in the UK Mateusz has performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and in Australia with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

An active and passionate promoter and performer of new music, Gwizdałła has conducted many premieres and performances of 21st century works, including his own. At the Sibelius Academy he has worked on several projects with the new music ensemble NYKY, and jointly produced and conducted his own concert of 21st string orchestra works ‘Waves where the Light Dawns’. With the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra he conducted the Finnish premiere of his own Allegro Furioso, and in February 2025 he performend the world premiere of Riddelin’s tone poem Marras with the Sigyn Sinfonietta.

Gwizdałła has a passion for working with various student, amateur and semi-professional music ensembles, having made appearances with the Kirkkonummi Chamber Orchestra, Yliopiston Soittajat in Helsinki, the Polytech Orchestra in Espoo, the Utrechts Studenten Koor en Orkest in the Netherlands, and Exaudi Choir, Boroondara Brass, and Lyric Opera of Melbourne in Australia. Next season he will be artist-in-residence for a week at the East Tennessee State University to conduct a concert program with their Symphony Orchestra.

Besides conducting, Gwizdałła works as tenor, having been the section leader and occasional chorus master for the Musiikkitalon Kuoro for three seasons, and a member of the Vokis ensemble that works with the choral conducting students of the Sibelius Academy. With his theatre education and vocal background, Gwizdałła has a unique love and understanding of the stage and voice, which is he has explored performing Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Sibelius Academy Opera department, and a self-organised performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with soloists from the Zauberflöte production.