Jyri Nissilä started as the conductor of Apollo in Autumn 2022.. 

Nissilä obtained his diploma as conductor in May 1999 when he made his conducting debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and graduated as Master of Music from the Sibelius Academy in 2002. In addition to conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr Nissilä has made guest performances as the conductor for most of the Finnish city orchestras, such as the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Lohja City Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta.

Mr Nissilä conducted the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra between 2001–2003, and has conducted the Aholansaari Sinfonietta chamber orchestra since autumn 1999. His international conducting career has taken him to Toronto, Paris and London, among others, and he has performed at prestigious venues such as the National Academy of St Cecilia in Rome, the St Petersburg State Academic Capella and the Hermitage Theater in St Petersburg.

Mr Nissilä has received acclaim for his interpretations of major romantic operas, such as Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, and Erkki Melartin’s Aino, which is based on the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala. He has also conducted the first public performances of various chamber operas and children’s operas of contemporary Finnish composers. He has worked as an assistant conductor at the Finnish National Opera and at the Staatstheater Nürnberg in Germany. 

Jyri Nissilä has recorded as a conductor both for the Ondine and Naxos record companies among others. 

Before his career as a conductor, Jyri Nissilä established himself as a versatile clarinettist who obtained his diploma in clarinet from the Sibelius Academy in 1995. That same year he came second in the Crusell Clarinet Competition for musicians from the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, organised in Uusikaupunki, Finland. As a clarinettist, Mr Nissilä has performed as a soloist with many of the most notable orchestras in Finland, including the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. He worked as the second solo clarinettist in the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera in 1989–2000. In addition to Finland, he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the UK, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Japan, for example.

A musically versatile person, Jyri Nissilä is interested in the effects of music on the autonomic nervous system and the stabilisation of alertness and vitality. He has studied trauma psychotherapy in Denmark.