Leo Funtek (August 21, 1885 – January 13, 1965) was a Slovenian

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, conductor and arranger. He is best known for work as a music professor and for his 1922 arrangement of

Modest Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (; ; ; – ) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five (composers), The Five." He was an innovator of Music of Russia, Russian music in the Romantic music, Romantic period and strove to achieve a ...

's piano suite '' Pictures at an Exhibition''. Funtek was born in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. He received his musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory (now the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre) and

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

. Funtek spent most of his working life in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, where he was conductor of the Finnish Opera. He was concertmaster with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1906 to 1909, and then was orchestra director of the Viipuri orchestra from 1909 to 1910. His most prominent role as a practicing musician was as conductor of the Finnish Opera from 1915 to 1959. He also served as assistant concertmaster for the

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

court orchestra from 1916 to 1919. In addition to his work as a practicing musician, Funtek was an academician. His first such post was from 1911 to 1939, at the Helsinki Institute of Music (now the

Sibelius Academy 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 ...

), where he taught violin, ensemble and orchestration. He later taught at the

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, where he was a professor of violin at from 1939 to 1955, and where he also taught the conducting class from 1950 to 1955.Anu Konttinen
Conductor Education in Finland
Finnish Music Quarterly, March 2006 He is credited with the introduction of orchestral training into the conducting class. Funtek's students included Jorma Panula, who himself went to become a leading professor of conducting; as well as Helvi Leiviskä (1902–1982) and Heidi Sundblad-Halme (1903–1973), two of Finland's most prominent female composers; and the composer Usko Meriläinen. As an arranger, Funtek is best known for his orchestral arrangement of ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', which he published in July 1922, just months before an orchestration by the French composer

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, of whose project Funtek was seemingly unaware. Ravel's orchestration premiered in October 1922, and is now by far the most-performed of the several orchestrations of the suite. In contrast to other orchestrations, Funtek's adheres closely to Mussorgsky's original piano version. Funtek was married to Finnish soprano Ingeborg Liljeblad. He died in Helsinki.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funtek, Leo Slovenian academics Slovenian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Slovenian classical violinists Male classical violinists Slovenian classical composers Slovenian male musicians Musicians from Ljubljana Musicians from Helsinki 1885 births 1965 deaths Academic staff of Sibelius Academy University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni Concertmasters Slovenian male classical composers 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century classical violinists 20th-century male musicians Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the Russian Empire Slovenian emigrants to Finland Leipzig University alumni