My Music

I have written and composed over 600 songs, performed by myself on the LP All the Long Way (#1 on the SONGS Playlist) and by such Finnish artists as Marku Aro, Frank Robson, Katri Helena, Kari Salmelainen… Frank Robson won the Grand Prix song contest with my song One For the Road (#6 on the SONGS Playlist). My songs helped Marku Aro to come second (twice) in the Syksyn Sävel (Autumn Composition) song contest. Singer and actress Susanna Haavisto recorded a full album of my songs for children. I also worked extensively with drama- and puppet theaters, composing music for some 20 theatrical productions for the Drama Theater and the Finnish National Theater (Petrozavodsk, Russia), and the Green Apple puppet theater (Helsinki, Finland). With the Finnish director Juhana Manner, I worked on a number of short films, corporate videos, and commercials. The short film Fresh Finland (#1 on the FILM & VIDEO Playlist, sample) became the winner of the Chicago Industrial Films festival, and the first Finnish wide-screen animation film The Last Channel (#2 on the FILM & VIDEO Playlist) received a special prize at the Tampere Short Film festival. I have received several prizes, including the 1st prize, for my music in many Finnish commercials. My musical Calypso (see the MUSICALS playlist) became the first Finnish original grand-scale musical. Staged in 2002 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, it was attended by some 20.000 spectators during the spring season. One of the key tracks from Calypso (#13 on the Playlist page) became a semi-finalist in the International Song Contest. Inspired by the life story of Joan of Arc (see the MUSICALS playlist), I moved to France where I wrote and composed a song opera/musical about the Saint Joan. Its full demo version is on YouTube.