Jorma Panula is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He was the artistic director and chief conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra from 1963 to 1965, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1965 to 1972 and the Aarhus Symphony from 1973 to 1976. Today, though he is in high demand as a guest conductor throughout the world, he has limited his podium appearances greatly during the past ten years devoting his time mostly to composition and pedagogy.

As a pedagogue he has served as Professor of Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1973 to 1994 and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.

Panula has had great influence on the world of conducting through teaching. His has been called the “hidden hand” behind the extraordinary succession of fine conductors that came out of Finland. His students include Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Pietari Inkinen, Rolf Gupta, Jukka Iisakkila, Dmitri Slobodeniouk, Dalia Stasevska ja Klaus Mäkelä.

He now teaches conducting all over the world including Paris, London, Amsterdam, Moscow, New York, Tanglewood, Aspen, Ottawa, Sydney and Singapore.

Conductor and pedagogue Jorma Panula is listed in the BBC Music Magazine league-table of the “60 most powerful people in music”, featured in the November issue year 2000. Panula was awarded the Rolf Schock Prize in 1997.