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 his country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century.
Paavo Allan Engelbert Berglund was a Finnish conductor and violinist.
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.
Hagai Shaham is an Israeli violin virtuoso. He began studying the violin at the age of six and was the last student of the late Professor Ilona Feher. He is also a violin teacher, a professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, in the Faculty of Arts at Tel Aviv University, and an artist-in-residence at Stony Brook University.
Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. As a violinist, he has won prizes at several international violin competitions, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Pekka Kuusisto is a Finnish musician.
Yair Kless is an Israeli violinist and professor.
David Fung is a concert pianist. Fung was born in Sydney, Australia.
Matti Juhani Raekallio is a Finnish pianist.
Elina Vähälä is a Finnish classical violinist.
Mauri Arijoutsi Angervo is a Finnish classical violinist and conductor.
Esther Yoo is an American violinist.
Hannu Petteri Lintu is a Finnish conductor.
The Tenth International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition took place in Helsinki from November 21 to 2 December 2010. It was won by Russian violinist Nikita Borisoglebsky, while Petteri Iivonen and Esther Yoo earned the 2nd and 3rd prizes.
Sampo Haapamäki is a Finnish composer. He has won several international composition competitions.
Nancy Zhou is a Chinese-American classical violinist. She has performed as a soloist in recital and with orchestras throughout the world. Zhou has been a prizewinner in several major competitions, including first prizes in the 2018 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition and the 2018 International Music Competition Harbin.
Miriam Fried is a Romanian-born Israeli classical violinist and pedagogue.
Juha Petteri Salomaa is a Finnish operatic bass-baritone who has had an active international singing career in operas and concerts since the late 1970s. He has performed on more than 30 recordings with a variety of record labels, including Decca Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, HMV, and Philips Records among others. He taught on the voice faculty at the Sibelius Academy from 2003–2008, and currently serves as a visiting professor of singing at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm.
Yuval Yaron is an Israel-born violinist living in the United States. In 1975, he won the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Since 2001, Yaron has been professor of University of California in Santa Barbara. Before that, he taught for some 20 years at the Indiana University in Bloomington.
In Mo Yang, also known as Inmo Yang, is a South Korean violinist. He is the first prize winner of the 54th edition of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy in 2015 and the first prize winner of the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, Finland in 2022. He is also the second prize winner in the senior division of the 2014 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Austin, Texas. In April 2016, he had made a debut at Carnegie Hall at the Weill Recital Hall with the Danish National Symphony conducted by Fabio Luisi.
