Anna-Maria Helsing has gained an outstanding reputation with leading Scandinavian orchestras and opera houses and in 2020 she was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London. From 2010 to 2013 Helsing was the Chief Conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra – the first-ever female conductor at the head of a Finnish symphony orchestra.
Within a short time the Finnish conductor has conducted all the major Finnish and Swedish orchestras as well as many orchestras in the other Scandinavian countries, Estonia, Germany and UK. She also conducted productions at the Finnish National Opera, the Royal Swedish and Danish Operas, the Gothenburg Opera and Folkoperan in Stockholm.
Upcoming highlights this season are Helsing making her debut with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London), Brandenburger Symphoniker and Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland as well as several return visits to Iceland and Odense Symphony Orchestras, SinfoniaNord Iceland, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Jönköpings Sinfonietta and Västerås Sinfonietta. In the start of 2023 she will be conducting the Vaasa Opera’s major project Pohjalaisia by Madetoja.
Just after finishing her conducting studies in the class of Leif Segerstam at the Sibelius Academy, Helsing was chosen to take part in the International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation under the guidance of Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel. In 1999 she won the First Prize in the International Competition for 20th Century Music for Young Artists in Warsaw. Helsing began her career as a violinist and have diplomas from the Conservatory of Jakobstad and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. She has attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula, John Carewe and Vladimir Jurowski.
Anna-Maria Helsing feels a special affinity with the sound and style of modernism and contemporary music.
