Erkki Pohjola
Founder and conductor 1963 - 1994

In Finland Kari Ala-Pöllänen has acted as symphony orchestra, folk and jazz musician and conductor, as chorister and as ensemble singer and superintendent of music. He is an author of school music text books MUSICA (Edition Fazer), writer of music in encyclopedia, and author of school programmes at the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

He has been the artistic director of international choral festivals, worked as a jury member for choir competitions and as a guest conductor and lecturer in numerous festivals in Finland and abroad.

As choir conductor he became internationally known of his Vox Aurea-children's choir in the city of Jyväskylä. This choir was nominated as "The Youth Choir of the Year" by the Finnish Broadcasting Company in 1992 - 1993.

Kari Ala-Pöllänen's demonstration "How to train children's voices and how to build a choir sound" has been performed widely in the choral world.

In February 1994 Kari Ala-Pöllänen was welcomed to take over the artistic responsibility of the Tapiola Choir. Since then they have together made successful tours to Canada, the United States, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, Tasmania, the Basque country, Catalonia, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In February 1995 Kari Ala-Pöllänen was nominated "The Choir Conductor of the Year" in Finland as the result of his activities as a choral director and versatile pedagogue both in Finland and abroad. This was the first time the nomination was given by the Finnish Society for Choral Directors.

Outside Finland Erkki Pohjola is best known as the founder and conductor of the Tapiola choir, which was developed under his leadership and guidance from an ordinary school choir into one of the most highly extolled vocal instruments of our time. Pohjola founded the choir in 1963 and led it, alongside his many other commitments, for more than thirty years. The work of the choir became famous all over the world, and prompted the international choral community to speak glowingly of the "TAPIOLA SOUND".

At the same time Erkki Pohjola fostered the development of a new idea of music education: after meeting Zoltán Kodály and Carl Orff in 1964, he developed from their and his own ideas a liberal approach to teaching, with principles taken from chamber music and the natural creativity and musicality of a child as its starting point.

In 1971 Tapiola Choir won the main prize, the coveted Silver Rose Bowl, in the BBC's "Let the Peoples Sing" competition. Under Pohjola's leadership these children have made 50 concert tours abroad, travelling as young Finnish ambassadors all over Europe and to the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. The choir has made nearly 20 recordings and has worked hand-in-hand with many leading Finnish and foreign composers. Pohjola's book "Tapiola Sound" was published in Finland in 1992, and has subsequently appeared in English and Japanese translations (Walton Music, USA, 1993, Ongaku no tomo, Japan, 1994).

Erkki Pohjola is also known as the father of Finland's most widely-used school music textbook series MUSICA (Edition Fazer) and the artistic director of three major choral festivals in Finland. He was nominated an honorary professor by decree of the President of Finland in 1984.

Erkki Pohjola continues to maintain an active international schedule as a much sought-after guest conductor, lecturer and adjudicator. He was also (1992 - 1996) a member of the Board of Directors of ISME, the International Society for Music Education.