Einojuhani Rautavaara

Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b1928).
Jean Sibelius gave him a grant to study at the Juilliard School in New York. Rautavaara won his first prize in a composition contest in Cincinnati in 1953 and has since won fourteen first prizes at home and abroad. In 1997 his seventh symphony, 'Angel of Light', was awarded a Midem Prize in Cannes, and the next year his Violin Concerto achieved the same distinction. He says that he is fortunate to have been born in Finland, a country full of symbols, of ancient metaphors, revered archetypes.