Kalevi Kiviniemi (b. 1958) is an internationally distinguished concert organist. He specializes in French music (incl. study trips to Paris in 1981, 1982 and 1986) and has given several recitals at the Notre Dame Cathedral and Sainte-Clotide Basilique in Paris. He has also recorded on the historical Cavaillé-Coll organs in Orléans and Rouen.
Kiviniemi’s international career started with recitals in Japan and London in the early 1990s, and he was soon touring in Europe, and further in the USA, Russia, Japan, Australia and the Philippines. In addition to solo recitals and chamber music recitals, he has appeared with major orchestras such as the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He has been a jury member at international organ competitions (Nuremberg 1996, Capri 1998, Speyer 2001, Korschenbroich 2005), and he has given masterclasses for instance at Ruhr University in Bochum. He was artistic director of the Lahti Organ Festival in Finland for ten years, from 1991 to 2001.
Kalevi Kiviniemi has made over 120 CDs, including recordings on historical organs in the USA, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. Many of his recordings have won awards; two have sold gold and one has sold platinum. Improvisation was named Star Recording Prize by The Organ magazine in 1999, and Visions, containing Finnish organ music, received the Janne Prize for best Finnish solo disc. Kalevi Kiviniemi has received other awards and prizes too, including the Luonnotar Prize at the Sibelius Festival in Lahti in 2003 and the trophy of the Organum Society in 2004 for services to Finnish organ music. In 2009 he was given the Finnish State Music Award. International critiques count Kalevi Kiviniemi among the most influential musicians of our time.
