Sibelius Academy

The Sibelius Academy is a university level music school in Helsinki, Finland. The conservatory is named after Finland's most celebrated composer Jean Sibelius. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European conservatories with roughly 1700 enrolled students.

Degrees

The primary degree at the Sibelius Academy is the Master of Music (MMus) degree. The school also offers postgraduate degrees with artistic and research options. The postgraduate degrees are the Licentiate and Doctor of Music.

Junior Academy

Junior Academy is nation-wide and open to gifted school children. Virtually every Finnish internationally recognized musician has spent adolescent years at the Junior Academy. It is not an actual study programme as each student follows his/her own curriculum. Classes are usually held on Saturdays. About half of the 130 students, who are school children, travel from outside the Greater Helsinki area for weekend music lessons at the Academy. Professors teach many of them in the same way as students of the programme for solo performance, i.e. two hours per week in their main instrument. Studies in composition, jazz and folk music are possible and supplementary subjects, orchestral playing, chamber music and music theory are also studied at the Junior Academy.

Notable teachers and students

• Arto Noras , one of the greatest contemporary celloists, student of Paul Tortelier
• Olli Mustonen , pianist
• Karita Mattila, soprano
• Soile Isokoski , soprano
• Matti Salminen , bass
• Antti Siirala , the winner of Dublin, Leeds, and Beethoven international piano competitions
• Leif Segerstam, the conductor of Helsinki Philharmonics
• Esa-Pekka Salonen, the conductor of LA Philharmonics
• Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the conductor of Toronto Symphony
• Sakari Oramo , the conductor of The Finnish Radio Symphony