Finlandia Foundation Announces 2011 Performer & Lecturer of the Year

Finlandia Foundation Announces 2011 POY and LOY

Christina Lin of the FF National Office has announced the selection of the Performer of the Year, Wilho Saari, and the Lecturer of the Year, Carl Rahkonen, for 2011. The terms of both will begin on January 1, 2011 and last for the calendar year.

Wilho Saari

Finlandia Foundation National is proud to announce Wilho Saari, a distinguished kantele master from Naselle, Washington, as 2011 Performer of the Year.

The Kalevala, Finland's national epic, tells us that the first kantele was fashioned by the hero Väinämöinen from the jawbone of a pike. It has progressed since then to versions ranging from 5-string to 36-string (maybe more?).

Wilho Saari can trace the tradition of kantele playing back five generations in his family. His great-great grandmother, Kreeta Haapasalo, is one of Finland’s notable kantele matriarchs, a kantele-heroine, as she is often called.

As a teenager, Wilho played brass instruments in the school band and studied piano in college. At age 50, after his older relatives had already passed away, he began to teach himself to play the kantele.

Saari’s degree in music has helped him to develop outstanding skill in teaching himself to play kantele later in life. He is not only a recognized performer in demand, but also a well- respected and active teacher who generously continues to share his kantele knowledge with numerous students around the country. Wilho has received a Washington state Governor’s Heritage Award for his work popularizing and teaching kantele. In 2006, Saari was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts. He is also a very productive composer of kantele music, with over 2400 pieces written.

In 2010, Dr. Arja Kastinen from Finland published 365 of Saari’s compositions in a collection called “Tune-a-Day.” Saari has recorded two CDs on the kantele. His latest CD, called “Vilhon Vintiltä,” ("From Vilho's Attic") is mainly made up of his own compositions.

Carl Rahkonen

Carl Rahkonen is a second-generation Finnish-American who is a Music Librarian and Professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Ph.D. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University, Bloomington, with a dissertation entitled The Kantele Traditions of Finland. During this research, he and his wife lived in Finland as Fulbright Scholars for two years.

He has done research on polka bands in Pennsylvania, Estonian kannel players in Baltimore, American fiddling traditions, and most recently Scandinivian and Finnish-American musicians of the Upper Midwest. He authored the "Overview" for the European-American chapter of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. He is a practicing musician who plays classical, popular and folk music in a variety of ensembles.

For more information, see http://www.people.iup.edu/rahkonen.

We welcome both Wilho and Carl as POY and LOY for 2011 and look forward to presenting them at chapter events.