Ville Rusanen, a baritone, graduated from the Sibelius Academy with a master’s degree in music. His singing teachers have been Pertti Rusanen, Jorma Hynninen and Päivi Nisula. Rusanen is the winner of the men’s series of the Lappeenranta singing competition in 2004. Together with pianist Ilmari Räikkönen, they won the lied duo series of the Erkki Melart chamber music competition in 2002.
In recent years, Rusanen has performed on opera stages, e.g. At La Scala in Milan, at the Lyon Opera in France, at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam, at the Scottish Opera and at the Nationale Reisoper in the Netherlands. In the spring of 2013, Rusanen made his debut in Australia as a soloist with the Sydney Philharmonic under Vladimir Ashkenazy. In addition to this, he has performed e.g. At the BBC Proms Festival in London, at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, as a soloist at the Orchester National Bordeaux in France, as a soloist at the Philharmonique de Liège in Belgium and as a soloist at the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Ireland.
Rusanen was the artist of the year at the Nyslott Opera Festival in the summer of 2014. Rusanen has sung the title role in Salline’s Kullervo opera at the Nyslott Opera Festival. In the summer of 2019, Ville Rusanen performed in Nyslott in the title role of Rossini’s Sevilla Barber of Seville.
Rusanen has actively visited the Finnish National Opera. His roles have included i.a. Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisand’s Pelléas, in Kuusisto’s Is-opera Petter Kummel and Rautavaara’s Aleksis Kivi Opera’s young Aleksis. He appeared in the title role in 2015-2016 in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash hit Phantom of the Opera.
In 2021, Rusanen made his debut in Luxembourg opera as Harlequin in Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos. He released his first solo album, Polkuja – songs from Finnish nature, together with pianist Pami Karvonen.
In 2022, he has participated in, among other things At the Finnish National Opera in the title role in Britain’s Billy Budd opera and at the Ilmajoki music festival in the lead role of the opera Linkola Kun hilijaiset perivät maan.
