Why is Sibelius Museum in Turku?

The most frequent question asked from the museum’s staff is Jean Sibelius’ connection to Turku. The composer actually doesn’t have an immediate connection to the museum or even the town, but there are several indirect connections.

When it comes to the Sibelius Museum, the most important connection is the museum’s founder’s, Otto Andersson’s enthusiasm towards Sibelius and his music. The museum was originally known as the Collections of Music History at Åbo Akademi. From the 1930s onwards, the collections included Sibelius-material bequeathed to the Åbo Akademi University by Sibelius’ friend Axel Carpelan some 10 years earlier. Otto Andersson acquired more Sibelius-related material to the collections, such as manuscripts, printed scores, and correspondence. He also met the elderly composer several times and received some personal donations from him – the most important being the manuscript to his 6^th Symphony, donated in the early 1950s.

As the material accumulated, the museum organised exhibitions on Sibelius. One particularly vast exhibition was opened on the composer’s 80^th birthday on 8.12.1945 in the Consistory Hall of the Åbo Akademi University main building. An article in Helsingin sanomat about the exhibition mistakenly called the exhibition “Sibelius Museum” in 1948. Soon after the incident, Otto Andersson approached Jean Sibelius through a letter apologising the mistake, but also asking for his permission to officially call the collections the Sibelius Museum. Sibelius gave his permission to Andersson in a letter dated 16.1.1949.

Jean Sibelius, nevertheless, did have a family connection to Turku: his uncle Pehr Sibelius (1819–1890) lived in Turku. He worked as a book and seed salesman. The uncle’s most important quality to Sibelius was his enthusiastic music hobby. Pehr played the violin, sang in a choir and collected instruments. Even some of his compositions were saved in Jean Sibelius’ personal collections. Pehr supplied young Sibelius with sheet music available in Turku, as well as a violin. Thanks to Pehr, Jean Sibelius and his siblings spent the summers 1886–1887 in the Turku Archipelago in Korppoo, where Sibelius composed the works Piano trio A minor “Hafträsk” (JS 207) and Piano trio D major “Korppoo” (JS 209).