Ilkka Kuusisto

Ilkka Taneli Kuusisto (26 April 1933 – 20 February 2025) was a Finnish opera composer, conductor, choirmaster, and organist. He began his career as a church organist, worked for the broadcaster Yle and as artistic director of the publisher Musiikki-Fazer. He was choirmaster of the Finnish National Opera chorus and the Radio Symphony Chorus, and was general manager of the opera from 1984 and 1992. He was one of Finland's most prolific composers of operas, beginning in 1974 with an opera about the Moomins characters, in collaboration with their creator Tove Jansson as librettist and costume designer.