Symphony No. 2 St. Florian

He has also held the position of chief conductor of the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna and of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in addition to having been music director and chief conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera. Leif Segerstam is one of the most versatile and interesting musical talents from the Nordic countries. He studied violin, piano, composition and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and then continued with a post-graduate course at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

He began his conducting career with positions in the opera houses of Helsinki, Stockholm and Berlin with guest appearances which have included the Metropolitan New York, La Scala, Covent Garden, Teatro Colón, the Salzburg Festival and the Opera Houses of Cologne, Geneva, Hamburg and Munich. He is a frequent conductor at the Savonlinna Festival. In 1997 he made his debuts in North America with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The numerous recordings made by Leif Segerstam are recognized by critics and public alike as outstanding amongst modern interpretations. He has also shown exceptional creativity as a composer throughout his musical career and has written over 150 symphonies, as well as chamber and vocal music.

Since the autumn of 1997 Leif Segerstam has been acting professor of conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was the winner of the 1999 Nordic Council Music Prize for his work 'as a tireless champion of