IPA: [maˈtɛuʃ gvizˈdawa]
Australian-Polish conductor-composer based in Helsinki, Finland, Mateusz Gwizdałła (b.1993, he/him) is an alumn of the prestigious Sibelius Academy conducting class under prof. Sakari Oramo, and second prize winner of the 2023 Kodaly International Conducting Competition. A rising talent in the Finnish musical scene, in 2026 Mateusz has had debut performances with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and Pori Sinfonietta, and has recently worked with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, and Jyväskylä Sinfonia. Besides 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, Johannes Fritzsch, Luke Dollman and Benjamin Northey, among others.
Beyond Finland, he is the conductor for the Polish pop-folk group Kwiat Jabłoni in their symphonic-scale Przesilenie (‘Solstice’) 2026 album and tour, and has worked in Poland at Sinfonia Iuventus, the Szczecin Philharmonic, the Białystok Opera and Philharmonic, and the Szczecin Opera House, where he held a full time position as assistant conductor for two seasons. Mateusz has assisted Sakari Oramo at the Berliner Philharmonie for their performances of Das Lied von der Erde and Mahler’s 10th Symphony in Berlin and at the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam. He is also an aspiring pedagogue, assisting Titus Engel as a conducting mentor for the 2025 International Young Composers Academy in Ticino, Switzerland, with Ensemble Modern, and regularly conducting the Turku Akatemia youth orchestra, Sigyn Sinfonietta, where he’s made a tradition of inviting the orchestra members to the podium to experience conducting.
Mateusz’s artistic background and interests range from cornerstone classical and romantic repertoire to jazz, pop, boundary-crossing and definition-defying contemporary composition. His education reflects this: in Melbourne, Australia he first trained as a classical trumpet player at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, and then attained a double degree Bachelor’s in Jazz Composition and Performing Arts (theatre making) at Monash University. He followed these studies with an MA in Symphonic and Operatic Conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland, under Prof. Monika Wolińska.
