Stephen Ivan Portman (born 1 January 1935 in Mount Vernon, New York) is an American conductor and pianist, educated also in Italy and Finland.
Portman studied the piano with Paul Wittgenstein in New York, in Rome at the Academy of St. Cecilia with Carlo Zecchi and then at Juilliard School with Sascha Gorodnitzki in the 1950s, and conducting at Mannes School of Music. He studied with Pierre Monteux and subsequently on a fellowship with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. He moved to Finland and continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy with conductor Jussi Jalas in 1962–1964.
He held the post of Musical Director of the Opera Studio at the Sibelius Academy between 1965-1970 and then Conductor at the Finnish National Opera in 1969–1970, and at Oulu Symphony Orchestra 1970–1975. After which, he conducted opera in Gothenburg and Malmö among others. He's also conducted in Italy, Denmark, USSR, Czechoslovakia, South Africa and the USA.
In 1977, he moved the England and has conducted the BBC Singers and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Birgit Nilsson at The Proms. Portman is currently Honorary Patron of the Kent-based Caritas Chamber Choir. [1]
He retired from active conducting in 1985.
Sir Colin Rex Davis was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom he was particularly associated were Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett.
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.
Leif Selim Segerstam is a Finnish conductor, composer, violinist, violist and pianist, especially known for writing 352 symphonies as of August 2023, along with other works in his extensive oeuvre.
Atso Almila is a Finnish orchestral conductor, music director, composer, trombonist and teacher.
Aulis Heikki Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn, and English horn, as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera Ratsumies.
Jorma Juhani Panula is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He has mentored many Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä, Klaus Mäkelä and Tarmo Peltokoski.
Sir Alexander Drummond Gibson was a Scottish conductor and opera intendant. He was also well known for his service to the BBC and his achievements during his reign as the longest serving principal conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in which the orchestra was awarded its Royal Patronage.
Edvard Armas Järnefelt, was a Finnish conductor and composer, who achieved some minor success with his orchestral works Berceuse (1904) and Praeludium (1900). He spent much of his conducting career at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Sweden.
Okko Tapani Kamu is a Finnish orchestral conductor and violinist.
Jorma Kalervo Hynninen is a Finnish baritone who performs regularly with the world's major opera companies. He has also worked in opera administration.
Ilkka Taneli Kuusisto is a Finnish opera composer, conductor, choirmaster and organist.
Mikk Murdvee is an Estonian-Finnish conductor and violinist living in Helsinki, Finland.
Jussi Jalas was a Finnish conductor and composer.
Mauri Arijoutsi Angervo is a Finnish classical violinist and conductor.
Hannu Petteri Lintu is a Finnish conductor.
Michael Adelson is an American orchestral conductor. Adelson is a staff and cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic—where he also leads regular clinics and workshops for the orchestra's Department of Education—as well as conductor of the Auros Group for New Music in Boston.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Jutta Seppinen is a Finnish conductor and mezzo-soprano.
Dalia Stasevska is a Finnish conductor. She is currently the principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.