
Finland's Grand Old Violin Professor Tuomas Haapanen, 90, has been involved with all the Sibelius Violin Competitions as well as the Kuopio National Violin Competition, which is also considered the prep stage for the current international event.
In the past professor Haapanen has worked as the chairman of the jury, and he is still a member of the Competition Committee. "The general level of playing is higher than ever," he says. "In the early years you could hear all kinds of mistakes on stage; that's not the case any more. But the top players from the past would still be at the top."
Professor Haapanen plans to listen to everyone. "I might miss a couple of players due to a family event, though." He has trained hundreds of Finnish violinists, and for his 90th birthday in December of 2014, his second-generation students - pupils of his former pupils - played a tribute concert in his honor.