Leif Segerstam

Leif Segerstam (b. 1944) is a Finnish conductor and composer. He was born in Vaasa. Тhе family moved to Helsinki in 1947, where he studied violin, piano and conducting at the Sibelius Academy. He studied conducting as well at the Juilliard School in New York with Jean Morel, and received his postgraduate diploma in 1965. Segerstam's debut concert as a violinist was in 1962, and his conducting debut was in 1963, with Rossini's The Barber of Seville, in Tampere. He became the conductor, and later on, artistic director of the Stockholm's Royal Opera in 1968 and began working with the German Opera in Berlin as well as the Finnish National Opera in the early 1970s. Segerstam served as chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995 to 2007, and now holds the title of Chief Conductor Emeritus with the orchestra. At the same time, he was chief conductor of the Stockholm's Royal Opera and the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland until 2000. He has held positions with numerous other orchestras, including the Danish National Radio Symphony and the Austrian Radio Symphony, and has guest-conducted many orchestras throughout the world including the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo. From autumn 1997 to spring 2013, he was Professor of Orchestra Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Segerstam has conducted a variety of orchestras since 1963; mostly American, Australian and European. He is widely known through his recordings, which include the complete symphonies of Blomdahl, Brahms, Mahler, Nielsen, and Sibelius, as well as many works by contemporary composers, such as the American composers John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse, the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, Swedish composer Allan Pettersson and the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke. As a composer, he is especially known for his many symphonies, which number 344 as of April 2021. Most of his symphonies last for about 20 minutes, are formed of a single movement and are performed without a conductor. An example of this would be his 37th symphony which at its premiere featured Segerstam at the piano, leading the orchestra "in a relatively free form". This is partially inspired by Sibelius' 7th symphony. More than a hundred of Segerstam's symphonies have been performed.