Okko Kamu

Okko Kamu ( born March 7, 1946 in Helsinki) is a Finnish conductor.

Kamu was born into a musical family, his father played bass in Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Kamu learned violin and was accepted at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 1964 he founded his own string quartet, whose first violinist he was. In 1966 he became the first solo violinist at the Finnish National Opera.

As a conductor, Kamu was self-taught; However, he won the first competition of the conductor Herbert von Karajan Foundation in Berlin in 1969 at the age of 22 years. Karajan was of Kamus skills so convinced that 4-7 with recordings of symphonies 1-3 ( Karajan rarely, or never conducted 3 ) of Kamu completed in the 1970s, the German Grammophon Karajan's Sibelius cycle of the symphonies. For the second symphony in 1970 even Karajan Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was used; Kamu at this time was just 24 years old.

Kamu held senior positions during his career with numerous orchestras:

• Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 1970-77
• Music director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra 1975-79 (predecessor of Mariss Jansons )
• Chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra 1981-89
• Music director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra 1990-99
• Music Director of the Finnish National Opera 1996-2000
• Chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony since 2011

Kamu has also recorded with various labels over 100 recordings.