Biography

The Finnish violinist Sebastian Silen received his first violin lesson at age five, and later went on to study with teachers such as Konstantin Weitz and Seppo Tukiainen in the capital region of Finland. He completed his professional studies as a student of Anton Sokolov at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and as a student of Prof. Rudolf Koelman at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland. During his studies in Switzerland he also worked as Prof. Rudolf Koelmans teaching assistant at the ZhdK. Sebastian will begin working towards an Doctoral Degree in the Arts Study Programme at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in the autumn of 2016, focusing on music by Jean Sibelius and on foreign composers who influenced Sibelius as a composer.

Sebastian was a laureate at the 11th Kuopio Violin Competition in 2010 where he has performed with the Kuopio Philharmonic Orchestra under Atso Almila. Sebastian has also performed numerous times as soloist with ZHdK Strings in Switzerland and abroad, performing works by composers such as Bottesini, Bach and Vivaldi. In May 2012 he performed the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn with the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland under direction of Pablo Gonzáles. He has also performed at the Kiev Music Festival in Ukraine, the Sibelius Festival in Korpo in Finland and at the Sion Festival in Switzerland with the ZHdK Strings where he performed on the “Violins of Hope”, instruments recovered from the Holocaust.

Sebastian played the role as Jean Sibelius in the documentary "The Forgotten Music of Sibelius which was produced in 2015 by Douglas Productions in co-operation with Yle (Finnish Broadcasting Company), SVT (Sweden's Television) and DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation). The documentary tells the story about the two summers that Sibelius spent on the Korpo islands in the Finnish archipelago in 1886 and 1887.

Sebastian has substituted as 1st Concert Master at Norrlandsoperan in Sweden. He has also worked as 3rd Concert Master during the 2012-2013 season and 2nd Violin Assistant Principal during the 2013-2014 season in the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland.

Sebastian has participated in a numerous of masterclasses. During these masterclasses he has received coaching from great artists such as Zakhar Bron, Haim Taub, Vadim Gluzman and Ida Haendel, among many others. He has studied chamber music with teachers such as Martin Lovett, Stephan Goerner, Friedeman Rieger and the Kungsbacka Piano Trio.