Janne

Jean (Johan Julius Christian) Sibelius was born on 8 December 1865, in Hämeenlinna, Finland, to physician Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius (née Borg). Jean, or ‘Janne’, as he was called by his family, had two siblings: sister Linda and brother Christian. Following the death of the father of the family in typhoid fever in 1868, Maria Sibelius, along with her children, settled at Maria’s mother, provostest Katarina Juliana Borg.

Aside from Hämeenlinna, Janne spent his early years living with relatives in Loviisa and with his father’s brother, Pehr Sibelius, in Turku. Uncle Pehr was a shopkeeper by trade, but also an avid amateur musician which led to him taking a great interest in his nephew’s career, supporting him in various ways, e.g. by presenting the 15-year-old aspiring musician with a violin, and assisting him in obtaining sheet music.

In the 1880s, the three siblings spent a couple of summers in the village of Havträsk, in Korppoo, in the Turku archipelago. The trio dedicated much of their time there to music, with Janne playing the violin, Linda on the piano, and Christian on the cello.

In 1885, Janne, having graduated from high school, set out for Helsinki to study law at the Imperial Alexander University (today University of Helsinki). He also enrolled at the Helsinki Music Institute, initially studying the violin. Soon, musical studies triumphed law studies, and thereafter he dedicated all his attention on the study of music. At the institute, it dawned that Janne had a greater proficiency at composing  than at the violin, and after graduating, Janne travelled to Berlin and Vienna to advance his studies in composition. The up-and-coming composer had his first significant breakthrough in 1892, when his first major work for orchestra, Kullervo, premiered in Helsinki.