conductors

History will be made later this month, as Nicholas Collon becomes the first non-Finn to lead the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. What can Finland expect from the British musician – and should the rest of the world be listening too?

For conductor Dalia Stasevska, being appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and making her début at the Proms are not a flash in the pan but the result of hard work. Now the door is open to an international career, and she sees the domain of top international conductors as a playground without boundaries.

Conductor, electronic musician, singer, clarinettist and producer Taavi Oramo is known as a highly diverse and open-minded musician. Though increasingly performing as a conductor, he is keen to keep up his multiple other roles too: the various aspects of music-making that he is involved in are mutually supportive.

Baroque violinist and conductor Kreeta-Maria Kentala writes about how attitudes towards baroque music and female conductors have changed during her career.

Conductor Susanna Mälkki is becoming bigger and bigger in Paris. And she is still only 41-years of age. Barely a grown-up in the masculine and patriarchic world of conducting.

In the summer of 1998, Americans watched the U.S. House of Representatives debate a proposal to eliminate all national arts funding - contentious issue that was wrapped up in the "controversial" art such funding supported as well as questions over the very idea of federal funding of the arts. Meanwhile, news reports began to tell how the government of Finland had an advanced system of supporting music through its school curriculum.

Between the mid 1970s and the early 1990s Professor Jorma Panula and his students made the Finnish training for conductors both widely known and highly acclaimed. But where did it all begin - and what has happened since?

At closer range, Jaakko and Pekka Kuusisto do not even look alike. But it's been hard to convince the media that one is Jaakko and the other is Pekka (see VMQ 3/96). To start with, they have both in turn taken first prize in the national Kuopio Violin Competition. Then in 1990 Jaakko came fourth in the Sibelius Violin Competition at the age of 16, to be followed five years later by Pekka, who hit the jackpot when he was 19.

Sakari Oramo is Finland’s blue-eyed boy at the moment, having recently been appointed Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The appointment is not, however, just a boost to the ego but the just reward of true and selfless musicianship.Three cheers for another Finn who’s made a name for himself in the world!