Leif Segerstam - Conductor
"........ his hands turn into vibrant, fluttering birds at the end of up-stretched arms. There is no Kapellmeister beat. The results count - the Philharmonia Orchestra plays splendidly for him, with panache. Where Segerstam excels is in projecting works of splendour and size - works of blazing vitality and colour. Pieces that all-too-often receive limp, lacklustre performances take on vigour and dynamism once more." Kenneth Carter, www.classicalsource.com / Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, London - October 2009
Leif Segerstam is Chief Conductor Emeritus of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in gratitude for his supremely successful period as Chief Conductor for 12 years between 1995 and 2007. In addition he holds honorary titles with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany. He has also held the position of Chief Conductor of the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera.
Leif Segerstam, born in 1944, is one of the most versatile and interesting musical talents from the Nordic countries. From 1953 - 1963 he studied violin, piano, composition and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and continued with a post-graduate course at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
Leif Segerstam began his conducting career in the opera houses of Helsinki, Stockholm and Berlin with guest appearances which have included the Metropolitan New York, La Scala, Covent Garden, Teatro Colon, the Salzburg Festival and in Cologne, Geneva, Hamburg and Munich. He is a frequent conductor at the Savolinna Festival. Last season he conducted "Salome" ("Strauss's exotic score, whilst laden with full blooded crescendos, also contains moments of purity and subtlety, which Leif Segerstam expressed without sacrificing the quest for dramatic intensity. Fortissimos were terrifying, and Jochanaan's prophetic passages were moments of hypnotic beauty." Andrew Gosling - Classical Source, 7th June 2010) and "Lohengrin" at the Wiener Staatsoper and Britten's "Peter Grimes" at Vlaamse Oper. This season he conducts "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
The many recordings of Leif Segerstam are recognised by critics and public alike as outstanding amongst modern interpretations. They include the complete symphonies of Mahler, Sibelius and Nielsen in addition to several works by contemporary composers with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Scriabin and Schnittke with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Brahms with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz plus Reger and Alan Pettersson with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Next season, the composer's centennial year, he conducts Pettersson's 7th symphony with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997 he made debuts in North America with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony and Chicago Symphony orchestras which he has now visited three times. The 2000/2001 season saw his first appearance to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra which led to an immediate re-invitation and a European Tour with the orchestra.
Leif Segerstam has shown exceptional creativity as a composer throughout his musical career and currently has 239 symphonies, 29 string quartets, 11 violin and 4 piano concerti alongside chamber and vocal music.
Leif Segerstam has been Professor of Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki since 1997. He was the winner of the 1999 Nordic Council Music Prize for his work "as a tireless champion of Scandinavian music." In 2004 Leif Segerstam was awarded the annual State Prize for Music in Finland and in 2005 the highly esteemed Sibelius Medal.
August 2010