Finnish conductor Matti Hyökki (b. 1946) has conducted YL Male Voice Choir since 1980. He began his music studies at the age of nine at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he completed a church organist's diploma and a music teacher's diploma. From 1982 he held the post of lecturer in choir conducting, and in 2007 he gained a professorship at the Sibelius Academy. In 2003, he became the first in Finland to complete the degree of Doctor of Music in choir conducting, with YL as his 'instrument'..