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Kalevi Kiviniemi (b. 1958, Finland) is an internationally distinguished concert organist. He specializes in French music and has given several recitals at Notre Dame Cathedral and Basilique Sainte-Clotilde Basilique in Paris. He has also recorded on the historical Cavaillé-Coll organ in Orléans and Rouen.

Kiviniemi's international career began with recitals in Japan and London in teh early 1990s, and he was soon touring in Europe, the USA, Russia, Asia, Australia and the Philippines. In addition to solo recitals and chamber music concerts, he has appeared with major orchestras such as the Moscow Chmaber Orchestra and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He has served as a jury member in international organ competitions (Nuremberg 1996, Capri 1998, Speyer 2001, Korschenbroich 2005), and ha has given masterclasses for instance at Ruhr University in Bochum. Kiviniemi was artistic director of the Lahti Organ Week in Finland for ten years, from 1991 to 2001.

The musical public also knows Kalevi Kiviniemi through his recordings, his discography numbers more that 120 titles, including recordings made on historical organs in the USA, Japan, 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 given the Star Recording Prize by The Organ magazine in 1999, and Visions, containing Finnish organ music, received the Janne Prize for the best Finnish solo disc at the Sibelius Festival in Lahti in 2003 and the trophy of the Organum Society in 2004 fro services to Finnish organ music. In 2009 Kiviniemi has received the State Prize for Music in Finland, the most coveted music award in the country for lifelong achievements in music.

Kalevi Kiviniemi has made several television performances, eg. at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in the year 2000.

International critiques count Kalevi Kiviniemi among the most influential organ musicians of our time.

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Photo: Soile Siltanen