Mikko Franck is a Finnish conductor and violinist. Franck was born in Helsinki, and began to play the violin at the age of 5. He continued violin studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, beginning in 1992. In 1995, Franck took an opportunity from the Junior Department at the Sibelius Academy, which was celebrating its anniversary, to conduct an orchestra offered to any student who wished to do so. After this occurred, Jorma Panula immediately enlisted him as a private student. Franck entered Panula's conducting class at the Sibelius Academy in the fall of 1996. He has said of Panula: "He gave me everything that can be taught about this profession. For instance, we used video as an aid in losing my unnecessary mannerisms." Franck ended his studies there in 1998 without receiving a diploma because his international career had already begun. Before age 23, Franck had made his conducting d�but with all of the leading Scandinavian orchestras, as well as with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatsoper and the Israel Philharmonic. 

April 1st, 1979 in Helsinki (Age 45)