Blog

Last autumn, I and my friend Tuula thought it was time to put up an improvisation workshop at her school again. So on February 17th I went and spent another memorable day at Mika Waltari’s school in Laukkoski, Pornainen. With the curriculum reform a few years ago, the kantele was included in the music education […]

Runoi’s kantele camp (June 16–20) is over and I’m still digesting it. Planning and making preparations took almost a year. There were many twists and turns of which the covid-19 was not the smallest one. And finally, everything condensed into five hectic days. Digesting haven’t been merely mental: the meals at the inn PikkuPriha were […]

Wilho Saari, born in 1932 in Naselle, Washington, USA, is a fifth-generation kantele player down from the famous Finnish kantele icon Kreeta Haapasalo (1813-1893). Wilho’s parents came to the USA with the wave of Finnish immigration in the beginning of the 20th century: mother, Aili Lindström (1898–1981) from Rauma in 1911, and father, Wilho (Leppä)Saari […]

It was about nine years ago when I seriously bumped into this issue for the first time. I was visiting an US based online forum for kanteleplayers and I was following the discussion of our (then) new 11-string kantele guide book Invisible Vibration. I was completely surprised by one comment in which the kantele string […]

I had the wonderful pleasure to visit a kokle weekend course in Latvia, Dauguli, June 28-30, organized by Laima Jansone and the Kocēni Municipality. On the 30th of June we also took part in the 155-year anniversary of the Latvian Song festival in Dikļi. The kokle course had ca. 40 participants who attended different kinds […]