Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) was a Finnish composer whose seven symphonies, tone poems and the patriotic Finlandia of 1899 made him the leading figure of Finnish music and a symbol of national identity under Russian rule. Drawing on the Kalevala epic and the Nordic landscape, he gained international fame early in the twentieth century, though he published almost nothing in his last three decades at his home, Ainola, near Järvenpää.