Eero Pitkälä & Väinämöiset                           Jane Ilmola, Riikka Jaakola & 3 Rivers Kanteles                                 

Haapavesi church                                            (Jokilaaksojen Kanteleyhtye)press photo for first

                                                                            U.S. & Canada tour 2003 taken by the
                                                                           Haapavesi kanteleplayer statue                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                         

Eero Pitkälä was born and raised in the national kantele capital, Haapavesi.  Eero Pitkälä has played the

kantele by ear in the Haapavesi traditional style almost all his life.  Eero studied with the old Haapavesi

kantele masters.  Eero and other family members won an international competition in Russia in their early

 youth.  Eero has since earned a degree in direction of traditional kantele and currently directs evening

 kantele classes in Haapavesi and surrounding cities and towns.  He specialises in church music, patriotic

music and folk songs that have been native to the region for decades.  Eero’s work was the basis for an

EU-Leader project around kantele in the area entitled Soiva Puu  (Ringing Wood) to support the local

kantele tradition and the founding of kantele courses in the Haapavesi lyceum, the only such school in

 Finland to offer courses in kantele.   He also composes for kantele.  The national kantele organisation,

 Kanteleliitto has awarded him their Golden Kantele for work with traditional kantele.
 

Jane Ilmola moved back to her mother’s homeland after studying to be a school band and orchestra

teacher in Wisconsin.  Her past studies in harp lead to an interest in the kantele and after moving to

 Haapavesi, she also studied direction of traditional kantele.  She has taught kantele to over 100

 students in the Haapavesi lyceum in recent years as well as teaching it in the junior high school and

evening & summer classes.  Her students play in many various styles on 5- and 36-string kanteles as

well as 10-strings and chromatic concert kanteles that were awarded them in competitions and by the

National Cultural Fund, Northern Ostrobothnia branch.  In May of 2005 the Finnish ministry of education

appointed them Finland's Young Cultural Ambassadors.  Jane and her students have performed in eleven

countries and have eight years of kantele masterships behind them.  She is a member of the board of

the national kantele organisation, Kanteleliitto as well as vice president of the 3 Rivers Kantele Association,

 Jokilaaksojen kanteleyhdistys r.y..   Jane and Eero can both be reached through:  jane.ilmola@edu.haapavesi.fi