Ilkka Kuusisto | |
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 Kuusisto in 2011 | |
| Born | 26 April 1933 Helsinki, Finland [1] |
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Ilkka Taneli Kuusisto (born 26 April 1933) [1] is a Finnish opera composer, conductor, choirmaster and organist. [2]
Ilkka Kuusisto | |
|---|---|
| Kuusisto in 2011 | |
| Born | 26 April 1933 Helsinki, Finland [1] |
| Occupations |
|
Ilkka Taneli Kuusisto (born 26 April 1933) [1] is a Finnish opera composer, conductor, choirmaster and organist. [2]
Kuusisto studied at the Sibelius Academy (now part of the University of the Arts Helsinki), qualifying as an organist in 1954, and a music teacher in 1958. [1] He also studied composition under Aarre Merikanto, and afterwards went on to further his studies in Vienna and New York. [1]
Kuusisto started his career as a church organist, working in that role for nearly two decades. [1] [3]
He conducted the Helsinki City Theatre orchestra for most of the 1960s. [1] He taught at Sibelius Academy from 1975 to 1984. [1] He worked for many years in the music department of the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, and also was the artistic director of a leading Finnish music publishing company, Musiikki-Fazer , in the early 1980s. [1] [3]
Kuusisto worked extensively as a choirmaster, conducting the Finnish National Opera chorus and the Radio Symphony Chorus for several years, as well as having engagements with many other choirs. [2] [1]
His perhaps highest-profile management role was as the Director General of the National Opera, between 1984 and 1992. [1] [2]
Kuusisto's composition repertoire covers a broad range of genres, from stage and film music, to jazz, choral works, and opera, the last of which he is the best-known. [1]
In 1984, Kuusisto received the Pro Finlandia medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland. [4]
In 1992, the honorary title of Professori was conferred on Kuusisto. [2]
Ilkka Kuusisto's father was the composer and music educator Taneli Kuusisto. [2]
Both his sons, Jaakko (1974–2022) and Pekka (born 1976), are also conductors, composers, as well as violinists. [1]
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century.
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The Sibelius Academy is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities with roughly 1,400 enrolled students.
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Pekka Kuusisto is a Finnish musician.
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The Helsinki Music Centre is a concert hall and a music center in Töölönlahti, Helsinki. The building is home to Sibelius Academy and two symphony orchestras, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River, Op. 30, is a composition by Jean Sibelius, an "improvisation for narrator, men's chorus and orchestra". Sibelius composed it in 1899 on a poem by Zachris Topelius, a Swedish-language Finnish poet, who had dedicated it to Tsar Alexander II of Russia, thus escaping censorship. The piece was an "explicit protest composition" against a Russia restricting the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Sibelius wrote it for a lottery of the Savonian-Karelian Students' Association, where he conducted the first performance on 21 October 1899.
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Liisa Linko-Malmio was a Finnish operatic soprano and a voice pedagog.
Simon Parmet was a Finnish conductor, composer, and pianist who studied under famous composer Jean Sibelius.
Tarmo Peltokoski is a Finnish conductor, pianist, and composer.
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