{"id":30626,"date":"2023-07-13T13:22:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T11:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=186573"},"modified":"2023-07-13T13:40:04","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T11:40:04","slug":"who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Anna-Maria Helsing, the Finnish conductor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An introduction to Anna-Maria Helsing, the Finnish-Swedish conductor who will take the baton for two of the 2023 BBC Proms <\/p>

By Steve Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 13 July 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

She will conduct two Proms at the 2023 BBC Proms. Whos is conductor Anna-Maria Helsing?<\/b><\/p>\n

Who is Anna-Maria Helsing?<\/h2>\n
Anna-Maria Helsing is a Finnish-Swedish conductor, acclaimed for her performances with some leading Scandinavian orchestras and opera houses.<\/p>\n\n<h2>How old is Anna-Maria Helsing?<\/h2>\n<p>Helsing was born on\u00a017 October 1971, in S\u00f6dert\u00e4lje,\u00a0Sweden, and grew up in Munsala (now Nykarleby), Finland.<\/p>\n<h3>Did Helsing grow up in a musical family?<\/h3>\n<p>Very much so. Her mother was a pianist, while her father played the violin. She studied music at the conservatoire in Jakobstad, Finland, where she also took a violin teacher\u2019s degree in 1992.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Anna-Maria\" helsing=\"\" conducts=\"\" dvo=\"\" serenade=\"\" for=\"\" strings=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mzs2y3pXfCs?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" web-share=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3>Which orchestras has Anna-Maria Helsing performed with?<\/h3>\n<p>She has conducted many of the<span class=\""wixui-rich-texttext"\"> leading Scandinavian orchestras and opera houses. These include the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony and Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul><li><strong><a class=\""standard-card-newarticle-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/worlds-best-orchestras\/"\">The best orchestras in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\""wixui-rich-texttext"\">From 2010 to 2013, she served as chief conductor of the Oulu Symphony \u2013 the first-ever female conductor at the head of a Finnish symphony orchestra. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\""wixui-rich-texttext"\">In 2023, Helsing was appointed chief conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, where she\u2019d been principal guest conductor since 2020. Another first here: Helsing was the first woman ever named as chief conductor of a BBC orchestra.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Helsing has also conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in works including <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/pyotr-ilyich-tchaikovsky\/"\"><strong>Tchaikovsky<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s Symphony No. 5 and <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/antonin-dvorak\/"\"><strong>Dvo\u0159\u00e1k<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s Symphony No. 8.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\" symphony=\"\" no8=\"\" anna-maria=\"\" helsing=\"\" royal=\"\" scottish=\"\" national=\"\" orchestra=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jQbKLQMQoeE?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" web-share=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<ul><li><strong><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/dvoraks-symphony-no-8-best-recordings\/"\">The best recordings of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Symphony No. 8<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><h3>Who taught Anna-Maria Helsing?<\/h3>\n<p>From 2004 to 2007, Helsing studied at the Sibelius Academy under the Finnish conductor and composer <strong><a title=\""Leif\" segerstam=\"\" href=\""https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Leif_Segerstam"\">Leif Segerstam<\/a> <\/strong>and others. She later attended the International Conductor\u2019s Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation: her mentors there included <strong><a title=\""Esa-Pekka\" salonen=\"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/five-of-the-best-works-by-esa-pekka-salonen\/"\">Esa-Pekka Salonen<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><a title=\""Gustavo\" dudamel=\"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/gustavo-dudamel-announced-as-music-director-of-new-york-philharmonic\/"\">Gustavo Dudamel<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Is Anna-Maria Helsing Finish or Swedish?<\/h3>\n<p>She grew up in an area of Ostrobothnia, on Finland\u2019s west coast, where the majority speak Swedish as their first language. She says, \u2018I am a Swedish-speaking Finn in more ways than one. I feel almost equally at home in both countries but, like many Nordic people I know, I often talk about moving to southern Europe to get away from the long, cold and dark winters.\u2019<\/p>\n<h2><br class=\""wixui-rich-text__text"\"\/>Best Finnish conductors<\/h2>\n<p>Finland has a very fine tradition of classical music conductors. Other Finns to have made a huge impact on classical music include <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/sakari-oramo-extends-his-contract-as-bbc-symphony-orchestra-chief-conductor-to-2026\/"\"><strong>Sakari Oramo<\/strong><\/a>, Osmo V\u00e4nsk\u00e4, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Berglund, <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/john-storgards-is-new-bbc-philharmonic-conductor\/"\"><strong>John Storg\u00e5rds<\/strong><\/a> and, from the current generation, <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/who-is-klaus-makela-a-guide-to-the-finnish-conductor\/"\"><strong>Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4<\/strong><\/a> and 2023 BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/who-is-conductor-dalia-stasevska\/"\"><strong>Dalia Stasevska<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Pic: Timo Heikkala<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> An introduction to Anna-Maria Helsing, the Finnish-Swedish conductor who will take the baton for two of the 2023 BBC Proms <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30627,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor.png",858,526,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor-300x184.png",300,184,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor-768x471.png",768,471,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor.png",800,490,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor.png",858,526,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/07\/who-is-anna-maria-helsing-the-finnish-conductor.png",858,526,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"An introduction to Anna-Maria Helsing, the Finnish-Swedish conductor who will take the baton for two of the 2023 BBC Proms","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/30626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}