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 (; fi, Pietarsaari) is a town and municipality in Ostrobothnia, Finland. The town has a population of () and covers a land area of . The population density is . Neighboring municipalities are Larsmo, Pedersöre, and Nykarleby. The ...

, 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 (later the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki) from 1927 to 1933, then privately in Berlin and Lund, Switzerland. Her teachers included Dean Dixon,

Leo Funtek Leo Funtek (August 21, 1885 – January 13, 1965) was a Slovenian violinist, conductor and arranger. He is best known for work as a music professor and for his 1922 arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite '' Pictures at an Exhibition''. ...

Clemens Krauss Clemens Heinrich Krauss (31 March 189316 May 1954) was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. Krauss was born in Vienna to Clementine Krauss, ...

Erkki Melartin Erkki Gustaf Melartin (7 February 1875, Käkisalmi – 14 February 1937, Helsinki) was a Finnish composer, conductor, and teacher of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods. Melartin is generally considered to be one of Finland's most sign ...

Väinö Raitio Väinö Eerikki Raitio (15 April 1891, in Sortavala, Grand Duchy of Finland – 10 September 1945, in Helsinki) was part of the small group of composers who appeared in the Finland, Finnish art music scene in the 1920s with a new cosmopolitan mus ...

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

Georg Schnéevoigt Georg Lennart Schnéevoigt (8 November 1872 – 28 November 1947) was a Finnish conductor and cellist, born in Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland, which is now in Russia, to Ernst Schnéevoigt and Rosa Willandt. Career Schnéevoigt began his ...

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

Pro Finlandia The Order of the Lion of Finland ( fi, Suomen Leijonan ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Lejons orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty and the Order of the White Rose of Finland. The President o ...

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

o be O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...

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, Bertel Gripenberg, L. Onerva,

Edith Södergran Edith Irene Södergran (4 April 1892 – 24 June 1923) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet. One of the first modernists within Swedish-language literature, her influences came from French Symbolism, German expressionism, and Russian fu ...

, Katri Vala, E. von Knape, and

Einari Vuorela Einari Arvid Vuorela (17 August 1889, in Keuruu – 10 July 1972, in Helsinki) was a Finnish writer. He was born in the village Jukojärvi in a family of 10 children, and started his studies at Multia. He became a teacher in Jyväskylä in 1914. ...

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

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 conductors (music) Finnish classical composers Finnish women classical composers 1903 births 1973 deaths Women conductors (music)