ANTTI RISSANEN

Trombonist, Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Lecturer

Antti Rissanen is one of the few jazz trombonists in Europe, who works internationally as a soloist with multiple big bands. He is a long time student of Mr. Conrad Herwig and Mr. Jiggs Whigham via The New School University and "Hanns Eisler" Hochschule für Musik Berlin, from where he graduated with top honours in 1997. Since then, he continued studies at Sibelius-Academy from where he also holds a master's degree.

At the moment he is working on a doctorate research for Sibelius-Academy. He started playing the piano at age of six and improvising and composing at age of seven. At 9 he started  playing euphonium, which he changed to trombone at age of 14. His international career took off after winning the second prize in Frankfurt radio's Big Band composing contest in 1995 in Germany. In 1998 he won the Frank Rosolino Jazz trombone competition, arranged by International Trombone Association.

In 2001 he won the first prize at the "Rich Matteson" Jazz Competition at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Lahti, Finland. In 2002 he was chosen the brass player of the year 2002 by the Lieksa Brass Week. All together he has been involved with more than 50 recordings. As a leader, he has recorded two CDs with his group Mr Fonebone, which consists of award winning younger generation players of Finnish jazz scene. First one is called Mr Fonebone (ARFCD 1997) and the second CD "Mr Fonebone Live" 2001 (TEXCD 3000), which features trumpet player Ingrid Jensen.

As a co-leader with Ted Trimble, they recently released the Nordic Project CD with Gene Calderazzo and Jarmo Savolainen. Antti is also a very active lecturer and he also conducts many different orchestras. He has worked widely around Europe, recently much in Austria and Germany. In recent years he has worked with Bill Watrous, Jimmy Smith, Charles Tolliver, Randy Brecker, Jack Walrath, Ingrid Jensen, Peter Herbolzheimer, Ted Trimble and Gene Calderazzo. The critics have acclaimed that Antti has developed a great command and personal voice on his very demanding instrument, the slide trombone.