The Sibelius Museum is a museum of music, named after the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The museum is located close to Turku Cathedral in the historical city centre of Turku on the southwest coast of Finland. It is the only museum devoted to music in Finland. The museum houses a wide collection of historical music instruments from around the world. The archives of the museum include documents (sheet music, manuscripts, recordings, photographs, concert programmes, etc.)
General information
The museum consists of two primary exhibitions: the instrument collection and the Sibelius exhibition. The instrument collections circles around the concert hall of the museum, The Sibelius Hall, and continues to the second floor downstairs. The Sibelius exhibition is located at the furthest left corner seen from the ticket counter. The museum also organises thematic exhibitions. In 2018, these exhibitions are “Sibbe50” and “A cantata for the doctors – Music at academic ceremonies”. “´Sibbe50” celebrates the architecture of Woldemar Baeckman and the 50th anniversary of the current museum building. The exhibition “A cantata for the doctors – Music at academic” ceremonies covers music performed at conferment ceremonies in Finnish universities.
The Sibelius Museum also organises concerts at the museum, of which the most notable is the museum’s own concert series, the Wednesday series that has been organised since 1968. In addition to these concerts, there are also other concerts organised at the museum. The programme of the concert varies depending on the performer, but mostly the music played at The Sibelius Museum is focused on jazz, folk music and classical chamber music.
The archives of The Sibelius Museum dates back to the collections of professor Otto Andersson of the Musicological Department at Åbo Akademi University. The archives contain material from several different aspects of musical life in Finland, such as manuscripts, photographs and recordings. There are additionally several special collections in the archives. These collections include an extensive collection about Jean Sibelius, the Otto Andersson archival collection and the archive of the Musical Society of Turku.
In addition to the exhibitions and the archives, there are also a couple of auditoriums and classrooms in the premises of the museum. For instance, the auditoriums Brahe and Flora that have been named after the student choirs of Åbo Akademi University, Brahe Djäknar and Florakören
