Heidi Gabriella Wilhelmina Sundblad-Halme (25 September 1903 – 30 April 1973) was a Finnish composer and conductor who founded the Helsinki Women's Orchestra and conducted it for 30 years.

Career

Sundblad-Halme was born in

Jakobstad Jakobstad (; , ) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Jakobstad is situated in Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Jakobstad is approximately , while the Jako ...

, where her father Henrik Sundblad was a composer, cantor, and organist. She married Deputy Judge Helge Halme in 1930. The couple traveled to the Soviet Union and several Baltic countries, and published accounts of their travels in Finnish newspapers. Sundblad-Halme directed a private music school until they moved to Helsinki in 1933. Their son Hannu was born in 1935. Sundblad-Halme studied music at the

Helsinki Conservatory The Sibelius Academy (, ) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and 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 ...

(later the Sibelius Academy of the

University of the Arts Helsinki The University of the Arts Helsinki (, ), also known as Uniarts Helsinki, is a Finnish arts university that was launched in the beginning of 2013. Apart from a few exceptions, it is the only university in Finland that provides education in the f ...

) from 1927 to 1933, then privately in Berlin and Lund, Switzerland. Her teachers included

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, and Sulho Ranta. During the mid-1930s, she conducted orchestra concerts in the Finnish cities of Turku, Tampere, and Helsinki. Conductor

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reportedly suggested that Sundblad-Halme start an all-female orchestra so the men in regular orchestras wouldn't be distracted by a female conductor. She formed the Helsinki Women's Orchestra in 1938 and conducted it until 1968. Sundblad-Halme corresponded with musicologist Otto Andersson and poet Jacob Tegengren, and collaborated with dancer Sage Gundborg-Heilbut. In 1963, she received the

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award, and in 1968, the Director Musices award. In a newspaper interview toward the end of her life, she commented that she “would prefer

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a man ... as a woman havereceived so much opposition and anonymous phone calls and demands to stop all the fuss.” Sundblad-Halme composed many piano and violin teaching pieces for children. She set texts by the following poets to music: V. M. Fokke,

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, E. von Knape, and

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. Her music was published by Fazer Music (today Fennica Gehrman). Her compositions include:

Compositions

Ballet

*Enchanted Belt

Chamber

*Cello Sonata *String Quartet

Orchestra

*Elegy, Op. 4 (for string orchestra) *Pan Suite *Vishnu, Op. 13 (orchestration of the piano version)

Piano

*''Vishnu''

Theatre

*''Au Theatre de Marionnettes'', Op. 16

Vocal

*Cantata *Finnish Folk Songs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundblad-Halme, Heidi Finnish composers Finnish women conductors (music) Finnish classical composers Finnish women classical composers 1903 births 1973 deaths