On December 19, 2018, Sasha Mäkilä successfully defended his PhD thesis “Conducting Madetoja – Discoveries about the Art and Profession of Conducting” at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, in Tallinn, Estonia. His artistic research project consisted of performing all three symphonies of Leevi Madetoja, which maestro Mäkilä conducted with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in 2012-13 and with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in 2017.
