Finnish composer and conductor Leif Segerstam has led several international orchestras and is the author of an impressive body of work including hundreds of symphonies. Born into a musical family in Vaasa on March 2, 1944, he played violin and viola in the Helsinki National Youth Orchestra, giving his first recital in 1962 and conducting his first concert the following year. Trained as a composer and conductor at the Sibelius Academy, he pursued these two activities in tandem throughout a career marked by many functions and recordings. After taking his first steps at the Helsinki National Opera in the 1960s, he conducted the Finnish National Radio Orchestra and continued his studies in violin, composition and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York. Appointed to the Royal Swedish Opera from 1970 to 1972, he took over the reins of the Finnish National Opera in 1973 and guest-conducted other opera orchestras in New York, Milan and London. His tenures followed one another over the decades, with the Vienna Radio Orchestra (1975-1982), Finnish Radio (1977-1987), Rhineland-Palatinate Philharmonic Orchestra (1983-1990), Danish National Symphony Orchestra (1988-1995), Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (1995-2007), Sibelius Academy (1997-2013) and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (2012-2019). Composer of 371 listed symphonies, Leif Segerstam has conducted several of his works, including chamber music, incidental music, concertos and an opera, Völvan (2015). On October 9, 2024, Leif Segerstam died in a Helsinki hospital at the age of 80.
