Past Performance at Sacred Heart
Arto Jarvela and KAIVAMA
Monday, June 13, 2011
7:30pm
$15/at door
* student tickets available at the door
In the lexicon of Finnish Folk music, Arto Järvelä is one of the most important fiddlers of our time with body of work lasting over two decades. Beginning in the mid seventies in family band Isät ja Pojat (Fathers & sons) and during studies at music college in Kaustinen he formed Finland’s top fiddle band JPP in 1982. Thereafter Arto has been playing in most of the Finnish folk groups like Niekku, Tallari, Salamakannel, Ampron Prunni, Koinurit, Pinnin Pojat, Maria Kalaniemi & Aldargaz, The Helsinki mandoliners, Erik Hokkanen & Lumisudet, you name it!
Arto Järvelä was born 1964 in Hattula, southern Finland. In his family fiddling goes behind 3 generations of famous Kaustinen fiddlers. 1982 Arto started studies at Sibelius Academy Folk Music department and graduated 1994 as Master of Music. During his studies he adapted new instruments like nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle), mandolin, octave mandolin, kantele and has been seen jamming even with jouhikko (ancient finnish bowed lyre), double bass and brushes!
As one of the Finland’s most talented folk musicians, Arto has been representing Finnish culture in more than 35 countries. Concert appearances have taken him as far afield as Cuba, Peru, Australia, Pakistan, Thailand, USA, Canada, Japan, India and most of Europe.
1980 Arto wrote his first composition Tango a-mollissa (in a minor). Thereafter he has composed over 80 tunes and most of them appears on domestic albums, some of them recorded Internationally like Alice au pays d’Arto, which one Quebecuoise band LaBottine Souriante recorded in their album X-ieme 1998.
Arto has been active in the studio and recordings too. Over the years he has recorded over 50 albums with his bands. He has been wanted to side kicking other albums too, both domestic and internationally, and appearances goes over 70 albums.
Teaching in Sibelius Academy’s Folk Music dept has been one of his major dutys since 1988. Bands JPP, Ampron Prunni, Pinnin Pojat, Nordik Tree, Erik Hokkanen & Lumisudet, Trio Nor and The Helsinki Mandoliners, are alive and kicking. And of course Arto is working with new and interesting solo projects and swimming in an ice hole.
Finnish-American musicians Sara Pajunen and Jonathan Rundman of the folk duo KAIVAMA grew up in Northwoods cultures of long winters, lakeside saunas, rugged terrain, and solitude. The landscapes of their childhoods echo in the music of their new self-titled debut album, available June 7, 2011. Alternately ancient and modern Finnish influences reveal themselves in KAIVAMA’s sound: danceable rhythms, joyous melodies, icy whispers, sleek construction, primal drones, and poppy hooks all interplay as Pajunen and Rundman explore the music of their ancestors
