Sibelius Software

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Sibelius Software Ltd is a British music software company, with subsidiaries in California, Georgia, Missouri, and Australia.

Named after the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, it was founded in April 1993 by twins Ben and Jonathan Finn to sell the Sibelius notation program along with the Acorn Archimedes computers it was designed for. In August 2006 the company was acquired by Avid, to become part of its Digidesign division. Digidesign's main existing product is the sequencer Pro Tools. [1]

[edit] Software

Sibelius has expanded to support the Windows and Macintosh platforms, and grown to be the world's largest and most popular music notation software company. The first Windows version was released in late 1998. Sibelius 2, an improved version, was released in 2001. In 2003, Sibelius 3 was released, including new features such as the Kontakt Player and the ability to burn the soundtrack of the score to a CD for further use. Sibelius 4, the latest version released in July 2005, has many new features such the ability to write music synchronized to video, and 'dynamic' instrumental parts that are automatically updated when you revise the full score.

In recent years the company has also released various other music programs, including a range of software for teaching music called Sibelius Educational Suite, as well as a special version of Sibelius 3 intended for students of music.

In 2005 the company was given the prestigious Queen's Award for Innovation.