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The Helsinki Strings

The Helsinki Strings 

is a world-renowned string orchestra consisting of about fifty students from the East Helsinki Music Institute and the Sibelius Academy, their ages varying between ten and twenty. The orchestra was founded in 1972 by its conductors Csaba and Géza Szilvay, who both retired in 2010. The orchestra was conducted by Pirkko Simojoki in 2010 – 2011, Jukka Rantamäki in 2011 – 2022 and since the autumn of 2022 the conductor of the orchestra is Kasmir Uusitupa.

 
The Helsinki Strings have released around forty internationally acclaimed albums for the labels Finlandia Records and Warner Classics. The orchestra has also appeared in more than seventy television programmes, of which the two popular series ”Minifiddlers in Musicland”, broadcast in the seventies and the eighties, marked a new era in music education in Finland.
 
A substantial number of today’s active professional Finnish musicians – soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians, leaders, conductors, string pedagogues and other music professionals – have played as members of the Helsinki Strings over the years, and several have achieved international fame.

The Helsinki Strings have released around forty internationally acclaimed albums for the labels Finlandia Records and Warner Classics. The orchestra has also appeared in more than seventy television programmes, of which the two popular series ”Minifiddlers in Musicland”, broadcast in the seventies and the eighties, marked a new era in music education in Finland.

 
A substantial number of today’s active professional Finnish musicians – soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians, leaders, conductors, string pedagogues and other music professionals – have played as members of the Helsinki Strings over the years, and several have achieved international fame.