Fredrik Pacius, whose real name was Friedrich Pacius, attended the ''Johanneum School of Music'' in Hamburg and studied music in Kassel (among others with Louis Spohr and Moritz Hauptmann – and at the same time as the later violin virtuoso Ferdinand David). He then worked as a violinist for the Royal Court Orchestra in Stockholm.
In 1834 he was appointed to the University of Helsinki, where he worked as a "music teacher" (de facto music director) until 1867. He was instrumental in the development of Finnish musical scene by establishing a symphony orchestra and a student choir, among other things and was very active as a conductor.
In 1848 Pacius composed the choral song for Vårt land ("Our Land") from Johan Ludvig Runeberg's collection of poems "Fähnrich Stahl", which later became the Finnish national anthem as ''Maamme'', the Estonian national anthem as ''Mu isamaa'' and the Livonian national anthem as ''Min izāmō''.
In 1852 he composed the first Finnish opera, based on a libretto by Zacharias Topelius in Swedish: ''Kung Karls Jakt'', Finnish: ''Kaarle-kuninkaan metsästys'', and German: ''König Karls Jagd'' whose plot takes place on the Swedish-speaking Åland Islands, which belong to Finland. His second opera Swedish: ''Prinsessan av Cypern'', Finnish: ''Kypron prinsessa'', and German: Prinzessin von Zypern (1860) is also based on a libretto by Topelius in Swedish, while his third opera ''Die Loreley'' (1886) is based on a German text by Emanuel Geibel. Pacius is often referred to as the "father of Finnish music" because of his services to the Finnish musical scene. Source: Wikipedia
(Note: Translated from the German version of Wikipedia into English)
