The Finnish conductor Jorma Panula graduated from the Sibelius Academy as a cantor-organist in 1950, aged 20, and as a conductor in 1953. He subsequently served as Professor in Orchestral Conducting at the academy from 1973 to 1993. From 1965 to 1972, he was Principal Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and from 1963 to 1997 he served as artistic director of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra of Finland and of the Aarhus Symphony of Denmark.

Jorma Panula has been a visiting professor at the music academies of Stockholm and Copenhagen, and has conducted the world's leading symphony orchestras. Panula has also been credited with the recent proliferation of conducting excellence from Finland. His former students are Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Jukka-Pekka Saraste, music director of the Toronto Symphony; Sakari Oramo, principal conductor designate of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the young, up-and-coming Mikko Franck.

As composer, Professor Panula has written operas (Jaakko Ilkka, The River Opera), musicals, church music, a violin concerto, a jazz capriccio as well as vocal music. In 1997, Professor Panula was awarded the distinguished Music Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

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Discography