The Paulo Foundation
Paulo Foundation is the main sponsor for The International Paulo Cello Competition, which was launched and held for the first time in Helsinki 4-14 November 1991.
The second Competition was held 3-15 November 1996, the sixth in 2018. The aim is to arrange these events every fifth year. The next competition will be held in Autumn 2023.
The Paulo Foundation, established in 1966, is a non-profit foundation.
The Paulo Foundation is based upon the last will and testament of Reko Paulo’s wife, Hulda, and their daughter Marja. Reko and Hulda Paulo were restaurateurs. They founded the Russian-style restaurant Bellevue that still exists in Katajanokka, Helsinki. Grigori Pawlow, who later changed his name to Reko Paulo, was born in 1891 in the village of Tedre in Estonia. The substantial estate left behind by the Paulo family, which included an entire building and several apartments in Helsinki, was a testimony to their hard work. Reko and Hulda Paulo had two children. Their son Teppo fell in the last days of the Finnish-Russian war on the eastern front in July 1944 and their daughter Marja never married.
In terms of the regulations governing the Paulo Foundation it awards grants to artists and researchers who are either Finnish citizens or permanent residents in Finland. The grants are awarded in the fields of medical and economic research as well as in fine arts and music.
After 1966 the Paulo Foundation has received the following donations to supplement its initial capital.