Sibelius Medal

The Sibelius Medal is awarded to individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements as performers or supporters of the music of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It has been awarded by the Sibelius Society of Finland since 1965.^[1] The medal was designed by sculptor Eila Hiltunen.

Sibelius Medal
Awarded for	"individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements as performers or supporters of Sibelius' music."
Sponsored by	Sibelius Society of Finland
Country	Finland
Presented by	Sibelius Society of Finland
Reward(s)	Medal
First awarded	1965
Website	www.sibeliusseura.fi/eng/medal.html

Recipients

The Sibelius Medal was awarded to 220 recipients from 1965 to 2015.^[2]

Selected recipients:

• 1965
  • Urho Kekkonen, No. 1
  • Aino Sibelius, No. 2
  • Herbert von Karajan, No. 3
  • Georg Szell
  • John Barbirolli
  • Birgit Nilsson
  • Eugene Ormandy
  • David Oistrakh
  • Benjamin Britten
  • Oleg Kagan
  • Emil Telmányi
  • Paavo Berglund
  • Joonas Kokkonen
• 1970
  • Okko Kamu
• 1977
  • Colin Davis
• 1978
  • Alexander Gibson
• 1979
  • Isaac Stern
• 1980
  • Henryk Szeryng
  • Ida Haendel
  • Viktoria Mullova
• 1981
  • Leonard Bernstein
• 1984
  • Vladimir Ashkenazy
• 1988
  • Gennady Rozhdestvensky
• 1990
  • Aulis Sallinen
• 1995
  • Pekka Kuusisto
• 1997
  • Glenda Goss
• 2005
  • Osmo Vänskä, chief conductor
  • Esa-Pekka Salonen, chief conductor
  • Leif Segerstam, chief conductor
• 2006
  • Izumi Tateno, pianist
• 2007
  • Jorma Hynninen, opera singer
  • Soile Isokoski, opera singer
  • Reijo Kiilunen, managing director
  • Jukka-Pekka Saraste, chief conductor
• 2008
  • the Sibelius Society of Hämeenlinna
• 2009
  • the Sibelius Society of Järvenpää
• 2010
  • Andrew Barnett (UK), chairman
• 2011
  • Tom Krause, opera singer
• 2014
  • Folke Gräsbeck [fi], pianist
• 2015
  • Simon Rattle, conductor^[3]
  • Kari Kilpeläinen, docent
  • Hilkka Helminen, museum director
  • Paavo Järvi, conductor^[4][5]
  • Juha Kurkinen, managing director
  • Vesa Sirén, journalist
  • Pekka Helasvuo [fi], conductor
  • Kikuo Watanabe, pianist
  • Markku Hartikainen, researcher

References

1. "The Sibelius Medal". Sibelius Society of Finland. 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
2. "Sibelius-Seuran mitalin saajat" (PDF). Sibelius Society of Finland (in Finnish). 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
3. "Sibelius-Medaille für Sir Simon Rattle". Botschaft von Finnland, Berlin (in German). 4 February 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
4. "Paavo Järvi Awarded The Sibelius Medal". Pizzicato. Luxembourg. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
5. Brug, Manuel (18 October 2015). "Interview Paavo Järvi: 'Ich habe alle besser gemacht!'". Die Welt (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 13 December 2018.