The Kanteletupa-concert at the Organo hall of the Helsinki Musiikkitalo on the 11th of February, 2023, was an experiment born as part of research at the University of the Arts Helsinki, perhaps with slightly uncertain expectations at the beginning and at the same time firmly relying on a musical-philosophical theory about improvisation and creativity. In […]
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An Improvisation Workshop at Mika Waltari’s School in Laukkoski, Pornainen
March 07, 2022
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 […]
Read more...Ogoi’s Song Had It All
June 29, 2021
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 […]
Read more...In the Footsteps of Wilho Saari
May 14, 2020
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 […]
Read more...A comment on the unfortunate misunderstanding among English speakers regarding the string numbers
January 16, 2020
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 […]
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