Päivi Nisula studied piano in Turku before she graduated with excellence from the Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki and won the Timo Mustakallio Singing Competition  in 1998. Starting her career as a mezzo soprano, she first appeared in Tampere (Eboli/Don Carlos, Fenena/Nabucco) and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, with a recital (1991) and performances as Amneris/Aida  (1992,1994). She also performed at the  Royal Opera in Stockholm, and she returned to Savonlinna as Preziosilla/La forza del destino in 1999 and 2000. As early as 1993 Päivi Nisula was voted Opera Soloist of the Year in Finland and joined the permanent ensemble of the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, where she has performed an extensive repertoire, including Waltraute in Götz Friedrich’s Götterdämmerung, Jane Seymour/Anna Bolena and notably Eboli and Azucena. 

Singing the role of Riitta in The Last Temptations, Ms Nisula made the first steps towards further dramtic soprano roles. In 2002 and 2003 she sang Brangäne in the news Tristan und Isolde porduction at the Savonlinna Festival. In Helsinki, she made a most spectacular role debut as Kundry in Harry Kupfer’s production of Parsifal, followed by Tosca and later on Desdemona together with Renato Bruson and Giuseppe Giacomini.

In concert, Ms. Nisula has performed in Scandinavia, Germany, Spain, Malaysia and the USA, including Arnold Schoenberg´s Gurrelieder in Berlin and Leipzig with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, Mahler´s 2^nd Symphony in San José,  Eritheia in Manuel de Falla’s Atlantida or Sibelius’ Kullervo in Tokyo (2004), Kullervo together with the BBC Orchestra in Glasgow and Birmingham (2006) as well as Mahler’s 8th Symphony in Madrid (2007).


Recent and future engagements

HELSINKI                 
Parsifal(2005, 2006), Andrea Chénier (2006), M. Heiniö, Kärmen hetki – The hour of the serpent (2006); A.Sallinen, Punainen Viiva – The red line, (2007,08)

LEIPZIG 
Parsifal (2006, 2008); Hänsel und Gretel (2007), Lohengrin (2008)

SAVONLINNA          
O.Kortekangas, Isän tyttö – Daddy’s girl (2007)

TAMPERE
Don Carlo (2009)

TURKU                     
Der Fliegende Holländer (2005), Walküre (2007)

OULU            
O.Kortekangas, Messenius ja Lucia (2005)