Emilia Hoving is Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (since 2025).
Emilia Hoving has emerged as one of the most exciting young Finnish conductors of today: ‘eminently supple and expressive, with a thrilling grace and naturalness in her gestures... an immense talent... magnetic’ (Resmusica).
Appointed Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from the 25-26 Season, she also makes her debut with the Bamberg Symphony and Hallé orchestras, and returns to conduct the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In recent months, she was invited back to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony and Norwegian Radio orchestras, and debuted with the Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Belgian National, Nagoya Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony and São Paolo Symphony orchestras, with immediate reinvitations almost everywhere. In 2025, she also made her mainstage opera debut, conducting Opera North in several performances of The Magic Flute.
She regularly conducts works by living (especially Finnish) composers. In October 2024, she conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the prestigious Nordic Music Days festival and is closely involved with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s ongoing project to revive works by neglected Finnish composers from the last century.
Emilia’s career began as Assistant to Hannu Lintu at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2019) and to Mikko Franck at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (2020–22). Both posts led to important jump-ins that catapulted her to the limelight, notably when she took over a concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in the Berlin Philharmonie at only a few hours’ notice: ‘sensationell’ (Tagesspiegel, March 2022). She went on to make significant debuts at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra (2022), at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (2024) and at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra (also 2024).
Born in 1994, Emilia studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Professors Sakari Oramo and Atso Almila, having begun conducting studies in 2015 with Jorma Panula. She previously studied piano (from age six) as well as the clarinet. In 2021, she won the Finnish Critics’ Prize for the Best Newcomer in the Arts.