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Musicians around the world are remembering the talented and versatile Finnish violinist, conductor and composer Jaakko Kuusisto, who died Wednesday at age 48 after a two-year battle with brain cancer.
Born into a family of musicians, including his grandfather, Taneli Kuusisto, and his father, Ilkka Kuusisto, both composers, Kuusisto and his younger brother Pekka Kuusisto started violin at an early age. Kuusisto attended the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he studied violin with Géza Szilvay and Tuomas Haapanen, and composition with Eero Hämeenniemi. He later came to the U.S. to attend Indiana University s (now-Jacobs) School of Music, where he studied violin with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss, and composition with David Dzubay.
As a young violinist, Kuusisto was a stand-out in the international violin competition circuit, winning first prize at the 1989 Kuopio Violin Competition when he was 15, and then placing as a finalist in the International Sibelius Violin Competition in