Hans Kennemark (fiddle, viola), Arto Järvelä (fiddle, octave mandolin) and Timo Alakotila (harmonium) first met at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival in Finland, 1984. Hans’…
Artist Profiles: Nordik Tree
Tag: Finnish music
Artist Profiles: Mari Kaasinen
Mari Kaasinen is an original Värttinä member from Rääkkylä, has been singing and performing since she was two and a half years old. Previously a…
Artist Profiles: Kari Reiman
Kari Reiman plays fiddle. A native of Helsinki, “Reiska” has a long history of acoustic music, including five-string banjo, mandolin and guitar with several bluegrass…
Artist Profiles: Kirsi Kähkönen
Vocalist Kirsi Kähkönen, from Rääkkylä in Karelia, was an original Värttinä member from 1983 and sang with them exclusively until 2002. In 2002, she left…
Artist Profiles: Värttinä
Värttinä (meaning spindle) is an early progenitor of “New Finnish Folk.” Värttinä’s origins go back to 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä, in Karelia, the…
Artist Profiles: Janne Lappalainen
Janne Lappalainen is an original Värttinä member from Rääkkylä and is one of the band’s chief arrangers and composers. Janne, a student of Sibelius Academy…
Artist Profiles: Maria Kalaniemi
Maria Kalaniemi was born in May 1964. She has become one of the world’s most talented accordionists, not only as a technically skilled player but…
Artist Profiles: Loituma
Loituma is an ensemble that mixes the Finnish vocal tradition with the exquisite sounds of the kantele (Finnish harp). At ease with four-part unaccompanied vocals…
Artist Profiles: JPP
In the early eighties, a group of young fiddlers from the tiny village of Järvelä began making some noise in local folk music circles. Järvelän…
Artist Profiles: Gjallarhorn
Gjallarhorn rejuvenated traditional music rooted in the Swedish folk music of Finland. Their music was a modern echo of the ancient Nordic folk tradition with…