Anna-Maria Helsing
Conductor | Swedish | b. 1971
About Anna-Maria Helsing
Anna-Maria Helsing (b. 1971, Södertälje, Sweden) is a Swedish-Finnish conductor who grew up in Munsala, Finland. She began as a violinist, earning diplomas from the Conservatory of Jakobstad and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland, before studying conducting with Leif Segerstam at the Sibelius Academy. She was later chosen for the Allianz Cultural Foundation’s International Conductors’ Academy under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel, and has attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Vladimir Jurowski and John Carewe.
From 2010 to 2013 she was Chief Conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, the first woman to hold that post with a Finnish symphony orchestra. In 2019 she received the Louis Spohr Medal in Seesen, Germany. She became Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2020 and Chief Conductor in 2023, the first woman to lead a BBC orchestra as chief conductor. In 2025 she also became Chief Conductor of the Vaasa City Orchestra. Her operatic debut at the Finnish National Opera was with Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater.
Helsing has conducted all the major Scandinavian orchestras, including the Finnish Radio Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, as well as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
