Martin Wegelius memorial foundation awards 34 recognition grants in 2025
The Martin Wegelius Memorial Foundation has awarded recognition grants in total amount of 164.000 €. The grants have been awarded without an application, as an incentive for music studies and/or artistic work.
Recipients of the 5.000 € grant in 2025 are the following:
- Ahti Alavillamo, piano
- Ilkka Aunu, wind orchestra conducting
- Marija Baniulyte, choral conducting
- Rocco Barenghi, clarinet
- Diogo Campinho Fernandes, saxophone
- Elina Ceprova, flute
- Joel Guahnich, trumpet
- Ilona Hauru, kantele
- Martin Iivarinen, voice
- Kerttu Kaihola, violin
- Sanni Kangas, violin
- Atte Karhinen, percussion
- Martta Kunnola, viola
- Juha Krudup, double bass
- Pinja Lehtinen, viola
- Kukka Lukkarinen, guitar
- Veera Mara, guitar and horn
- Silvia Marjanen, violin
- Patrick Mauer, bassoon
- Adomas Morkunas-Budrys, orchestral conducting
- Tanja Niemelä, voice
- Auri-Helena Nikkinen, composition
- Yuto Obata, composition
- Eerik Ohtamaa, organ
- Johannes Pessi, voice
- Carmo Quintela, harp
- Santeri Rautiainen, guitar
- Nuppu Salmioranta, tuba and baritone horn
- Cristina Tomescu, piano
- Aleksander Traksmann, cello
- Zimu Wang, accordion
- Ella York, oboe
In addition, the foundation awarded a recognition grant of 2.000 € to the following:
- Tuuli Lindeberg
- Finnish Flute Festival/Finnish Flute Association
Martin Wegelius foundation
Martin Wegelius (1846-1906) is a prominent figure in Finnish music education. He founded the predecessor of the Sibelius Academy, the Helsinki School of Music, in 1882 and served as director of the institution and as a teacher of music theory.
After the death of Martin Wegelius in March 1906, his students and friends collected funds to establish a fund in memory of Wegelius and to financially support his widow, Hanna Wegelius. With the collected funds, a fund called the memory of Martin Wegelius (Fonden Martin Wegelius´ minne) was established. With part of the collected funds, the fund bought the Vikan property from Hanna Wegelius. After Wegelius’ widow died in November 1906, Vikan served as a rest home for musicians.
Martin Wegeliuksen muisto – Martin Wegelius´ minne foundation was founded in 1931. The foundation continued the operation of the fund. According to the rules of 1931, the purpose of the foundation was to maintain Villa Vikan as a recreation home for musicians. The foundation sold the property in 1944 and with the proceeds from the sale, a (new) basic capital was formed for the foundation. The foundation’s current rules state that the purpose of the foundation, at the discretion of its board, is to distribute grants for recreational vacations or studies to composers, music teachers and students working/studying in Finland.