Helvi Leiviskä was a Finnish composer, writer, music educator and librarian at the Sibelius Academy.

Life

Helvi Leiviskä was born in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, and in 1927 graduated in composition from the Helsinki Music Institute (Sibelius Academy

Sibelius Academy

The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...

) where she studied with Erkki Melartin

Erkki Melartin

Erkki Melartin was a Finnish composer and pupil of Martin Wegelius from 1892-99 in Helsinki, and Robert Fuchs from 1899-1901 in Vienna. He shares identical birth and death years with the composer Maurice Ravel....

. She continued her studies in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and then returned to Finland where she studied with Leevi Madetoja

Leevi Madetoja

Leevi Antti Madetoja was a Finnish composer.-Life and career:Born in Oulu, he was the son of Antti Madetoja and Anna Hyttinen...

. She began work as a composer with a debut in 1935 and also worked as a music teacher. In 1933 she took a position as librarian at the Sibelius Academy.

After World War II, Leiviskä furthered her studies with Leo Funtek

Leo Funtek

Leo Funtek was a violinist, conductor and arranger. He is best known for work as a music professor and for his 1922 arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition....

and began to write reviews for periodicals including Ilta Sanomat. She died in Helsinki.

Works

Selected works include:

• Piano Concerto, 1935
• Triple Fugue for Orchestra, 1938
• Symphony No. 1, 1947
• Symphony No. 2, 1954
• Symphony No. 3, 1971
• Sinfonia Brevis, 1962
• Folk Dance Suite, 1934
• Hobgoblin of Darkness, 1942
• The Lost Continent for choir and orchestra, 1957
• Juha film music, 1937
• Violin Sonata, 1945
• Piano Quartet, 1926