# Leif Segerstam

Leif Selim Segerstam (/ˈleɪf/ LAYF, 2 March 1944 – 9 October 2024) was a Finnish conductor, composer, violinist, violist, and pianist, especially known for writing over 300 symphonies, along with other works.
From 1963 onward Segerstam conducted a variety of orchestras in Europe, the Americas and Australia. He was conductor at the Finnish National Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and was chief conductor of the ORF Symphony Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Danish National Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. He is widely known through his recordings, including the complete symphonies of Blomdahl, Brahms, Mahler, Nielsen, and Sibelius, as well as many works by contemporary composers. He is remembered for his contributions to the Finnish music scene, and his vibrant personality.
He taught as professor of orchestra conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

## Life and career

Leif Segerstam was born on 2 March 1944 in Vaasa, to Selim Segerstam and Viola Maria Kronqvist, into a musical Swedish-speaking family. Selim made several song books as a living. The Segerstams then moved to Helsinki in 1947. During Leif's time at school, he played the violin and the viola with the Helsinki Youth Orchestra.
Segerstam's debut concert as a violinist was in 1962, and his conducting debut was in 1963, with Rossini's The Barber of Seville, in Tampere. Following the premiere, Segerstam was hired to conduct the Finnish National Opera, and a year later he conducted the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He conducted contemporary works such as Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Shostakovich's First Symphony.
Segerstam studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, piano with Jaakko Somero, violin with Leena Siukonen-Penttilä, composition with Einar Englund and Joonas Kokkonen, and conducting with Jussi Jalas. He received diplomas in violin and conducting in 1963. He studied further at the Juilliard School in New York City, violin with Louis Persinger, composition with Hall Overton and Vincent Persichetti, and conducting with Jean Morel, and received his postgraduate diploma in 1965.
Segerstam took part, as second conductor, in a 1968 tour of the Helsinki Philharmonic to the United States. He was chief conductor and music director of the Royal Swedish Opera from 1970 to 1972, and music director of the Finnish National Opera in 1973 and 1974. He began working with Deutsche Oper Berlin in the early 1970s. He conducted as a guest at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, La Scala in Milan and the Royal Opera House in London, with a repertoire including Verdi's Aida and Don Carlo, R. Strauss' Salome and Elektra and Wagner's Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer.
Segerstam served as chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995 to 2007, and held the title of Chief Conductor Emeritus with the orchestra. At the same time, he was chief conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera again and of the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland until 2000.
He held positions with numerous other orchestras, including the ORF Symphony Orchestra (1975 to 1982), the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz (1982 to 1989), the Danish National Radio Symphony (1988 to 1995), and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (2012 to 2019). He guest-conducted many orchestras in Europe, the Americas and in Australia, including the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo.
From autumn 1997 to spring 2013, he was professor of orchestra conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His students include Rune Bergmann, Susanna Mälkki, Mikk Murdvee, Sasha Mäkilä and Markku Laakso.
In 2004 he made a cameo appearance in the Finnish film Pelicanman.
In 2024, he was hospitalized after a "brief bout of pneumonia", dying after complications related to the disease at the hospital on the 9th of October of 2024.

## Compositions

As a composer, Segerstam is especially known for his many symphonies, which numbered 371 by March 2024.
Most of his symphonies last for about 20 minutes, are formed of a single movement and can be performed without a conductor. His 37th symphony, for example, at its premiere featured Segerstam at the piano, leading the orchestra "in a relatively free form". This is partially inspired by Sibelius' Seventh symphony. More than a hundred of Segerstam's symphonies have been performed.
Many of his compositions are influenced by nature, and he was often praised for his contributions to Nordic music. He developed a personal approach to aleatory composition through a style called "free pulsation" in which musical events interact flexibly in time, with his composition method persistent throughout his œuvre. His Fifth String Quartet, the "Lemming Quartet" (1970), ushered in his new chapter of post-expressionistic writing of the 1960s. This composition approach proved to be a quick way of writing large blocks of sound (the temporal order of events being left to the performer) and permitted an exceptionally prolific output. Instead of constituting individual works, his music is more like a musical stream of consciousness (under the headings of Thoughts, Episode and Orchestral Diary Sheet). It also means that there are numerous scorings of the same piece. This method was first used in the "Lemming Quartet".
Among Segerstam's juvenilia (1960–1969) are four string quartets from 1962–1966, and the post-impressionist ballet Pandora from 1967. The quartets are usually labeled as from his "Post-Expressionist" period. He composed 30 string quartets and numerous concertos, for violin, viola, cello and piano.
In 2015 Segerstam began work on an opera, Völvan, with a libretto by Elisabeth Wärnfeldt.

## Personal life

Segerstam was married to the violinist Hannele Segerstam [fi], concertmaster of the Finnish RSO; they had two children.
After they divorced, he married the Helsinki Philharmonic harpist Minnaleena Jankko in 2002; they had three children. In 2009 it was announced that their marriage would end.
In a 2024 interview, Segerstam mentioned being autistic.
Segerstam died from pneumonia at a Helsinki hospital, on 9 October 2024, at the age of 80.

## Awards

* 1962, Segerstam won the International Maj Lind Piano Competition.
* 1999, he was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize for his work as a "tireless champion of Scandinavian Music".
* 2003, he received Svenska Kulturfonden's Prize for Music.
* 2004, he was awarded the annual State Prize for Music in Finland.
* 2005, he was awarded the Sibelius Medal.
* 2014, the President of Finland granted Segerstam the title of Professor

## Honors

* Pro Finlandia medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, 6 December 1992

## Recordings

Segerstam is widely known through his recordings, which include the complete symphonies of Blomdahl, Brahms, Mahler, Nielsen, and Sibelius, as well as many works by contemporary composers, such as the Americans John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse, the Finnish Einojuhani Rautavaara, Swedish Allan Pettersson, and the Russian Alfred Schnittke.
The following is a list of selected orchestral recordings conducted by Segerstam.
| Album | Label | Year | Orchestra – artists | OCLC |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 1 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 288, "Letting the FLOW go on…" | Alba | 2016 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 1030580321 |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 2 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 289, "When a Cat Visited" | Alba | 2018 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 1084272213 |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 3 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 294, "Songs of a UNICORN heralding …" | Alba | 2019 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 1057237130 |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 295, "ulFSöDErBlom in Memoriam …" | Alba | 2019 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 1137804301 |
| Aubert: Orchestral Works – Cinéma / Feuille d'Images / Offrande / Dryade | SWR Classic Archive | 1994 | Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz | OCLC 959710455 |
| Beethoven: König Stephan / Leonore Prohaska (excerpts) | Naxos | 2020 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra The Key Ensemble, Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis | OCLC 1155153114 |
| Beethoven: Die Ruinen von Athen | Naxos | 2020 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis | OCLC 1396202758 |
| Borup-Jørgensen: Sommasvit / Nordisk Sommerpastorale | Dacapo | 1995 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 873449234 |
| Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 / From the Deep | Chandos | 1994 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir | OCLC 815409291 |
| Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 9 | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 874520865 |
| Mahler: Symphony No. 3 | Chandos | 1991 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir Anne Gjevang, Copenhagen Boys' Choir | OCLC 1057012973 |
| Mahler: Symphony No. 4 | Alba | 2020 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 1221007259 |
| Mahler: Symphony No. 10 and 8 | Chandos | 1994 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir | OCLC 908332069 |
| Nørgård: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 | Chandos | 1997 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 730472425 |
| Nørgård: Symphony No. 2 / Sinfonia Austera | Chandos | 1996 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 811243631 |
| Nørgård: Symphony No. 3 / Concerto in due tempi | Chandos | 1996 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir | OCLC 811243640 |
| Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 15 | BIS | 1994 | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 705287325 |
| Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 11 | BIS | 1993 | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 811225881 |
| Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 8 and 10 | BIS | 1998 | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 705288109 |
| Rautavaara: Before the Icons / A Tapestry of Life | Ondine | 2010 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 767883061 |
| Rautavaara: Garden of Spaces / Clarinet Concerto / Cantus arcticus | Ondine | 2005 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Richard Stoltzman | OCLC 811335953 |
| Rautavaara: Harp Concerto / Symphony No. 8 | Ondine | 2001 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Marielle Nordmann | OCLC 811336727 |
| Rautavaara: Manhattan Trilogy / Symphony No. 3 | Ondine | 2008 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 315789639 |
| Rautavaara: On the Last Frontier / Flute Concerto / Anadyomene | Ondine | 1999 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Patrick Gallois | OCLC 823228832 |
| Rautavaara: Violin Concerto / Isle of Bliss / Angels and Visitations | Ondine | 1997 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Elmar Oliveira | OCLC 811336700 |
| Rautavaara: Symphony No. 7 / Annunciations | Ondine | 1996 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 900665955 |
| Romantic Trombone Concertos | BIS | 1988 | Bamberger Symphoniker Christian Lindberg | OCLC 872381464 |
| Ruders, P.: Saaledes saae Johannes / Gong / Tundra / Symphony No. 1 | Chandos | 1993 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 1120829136 |
| Schmitt, F.: Orchestral Works – Danse d'Abisag / Habeyssée / Rêves / Symphony No. 2 | SWR Classic Archive | 2007 | Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz | OCLC 959723692 |
| Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 / Reverie / Le Poeme de l'extase | BIS | 1992 | Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 705229879 |
| Scriabin: Piano Concerto / Symphony No. 3 "Le divin poeme" | BIS | 1990 | Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 705286490 |
| Scriabin: Symphony No. 1 / Prometheus | BIS | 1991 | Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | OCLC 811239112 |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 / In memoriam | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 906564001 |
| Sibelius.: Symphony No. 2 / Finlandia | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 906563893 |
| Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 / Valse triste | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 906563946 |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 3 / Scenes with cranes / Tapiola | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 906563998 |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 / The Tempest Suite No. 1 | Chandos | 1991 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 906563829 |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 / Pohjola's Daughter / En saga | Chandos | 1991 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | OCLC 906563833 |
| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde | Naxos | 2005 | Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra and Male Chorus | OCLC 144651023 |