Leevi Madetoja

Leevi Antti Madetoja was born on February 17, 1887, in Oulu. After early studies at the Helsinki Music Institute, he became Jean Sibelius's private composition student, followed by intensive studies in Paris with Vincent d'Indy and in Vienna with Robert Fuchs.

Madetoja created a refined synthesis of Finnish melancholy, French orchestral elegance, and Ostrobothnian folk melodies. His 1923 opera Pohjalaisia (The Ostrobothnians), depicting rebellious 19th-century knife-fighters (häjyt) standing up against tyrannical Cossack bailiffs, was instantly hailed as Finland's national opera. His Symphony No. 2 (1918) movingly commemorated his brother and friend killed during the Finnish Civil War.