Robert Kajanus (2 December 1856 – 6 July 1933) was a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher. In 1882, he founded the Helsinki Orchestral Society, Finland's first professional orchestra. As a conductor, he was also a notable champion and interpreter of the music of Jean Sibelius. Life Kajanus studied music theory with Richard Faltin, violin with Gustaf Niemann in Helsinki, with Hans Richter, Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig and Johan Svendsen in Paris. His music drew on the folk legends of the Finnish people. He worked in Dresden in the years immediately after his graduation, and returned to Helsinki in 1882. He founded the first permanent orchestra in Finland: the Helsinki Orchestral Society (later to become the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finland's national orchestra). He brought the orchestra to a very high performance standard very quickly, so that they were able to give quite credible performances of the standard late classical/mid-romantic repertory. Kajanus led the Helsinki Philharmonic for 50 years, and among the milestones of that history was the first performance in Finland of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in 1888. His early-electric 78-rpm atmospheric, authoritative recordings of Sibelius symphonies are still interpretive milestones. Kajanus was appointed director of music at the University of Helsinki in 1897 and remained in the post for the next 29 years, a period in which he had a major impact on music education in his native country. In 1917, he became the first president of the Finnish Musicians' Union. He was also the founder of the Nordic Music Festival in 1919. He received many decorations, including the French Légion d'honneur. Family Kajanus's parents were Georg August Cajanus (1812–1888) and Agnes Ottilia Flodin (1824–1902). Robert Kajanus was the father of harpists Lilly Kajanus-Blenner (1885–1963) and Aino Kajanus-Mangström (1888–1951), and violinist Kaj Kajanus (1908-1994); the grandfather of award-winning Finnish/Norwegian sculptor Johanna Kajanus; and great-grandfather of pop musician and composer Georg Kajanus, who was famous for a while in Great Britain with his band Sailor which enjoyed chart success in the mid-1970s. Selected works Kajanus composed over 200 works, of which Aino and the Finnish Rhapsodies are enduringly popular. He also orchestrated the Finnish national anthem, Maamme (Our Country) and Christian Fredric Kress's Porilaisten marssi (March of the People of Pori), the honor march of the Suomen puolustusvoimat (Finnish Defense Forces) and thus, effectively, the Finnish presidential march. Adagietto Aino, symphonic poem for male chorus and orchestra (1885)