Timo Alakotila
Encyclopedia
Timo Alakotila is a Finnish composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger, and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
born July 15, 1959.
Timo Alakotila's range of music styles stretches from Finnish folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
of the pelimanni style over some jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
influences to more or less Finnish style tangos, and with some extensions to classical music. He is one of the founding members of the well-known Finnish folk fiddler group JPP
JPP
JPP is a group of Finnish folk musicians, mainly fiddlers, hailing from Kaustinen. The name originally meant Järvelän Pikkupelimannit, the small fiddlers of Järvelä, but today the group only uses the abbreviation JPP...
of the Kaustinen
Kaustinen
Kaustinen is a municipality of Finland.It is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
tradition, where he plays harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
, and in the similar group Troka. In both groups, he is one of the main arrangers and composers. Alakotila has worked with accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
ist Maria Kalaniemi
Maria Kalaniemi
Maria Kalaniemi is a Finnish accordionist. She was originally classically trained, but has become mostly as folk musician having played this music from childhood, besides her classical music studies, and also at the folk music department of the Sibelius Academy.Groups she is or has been involved...
for more than ten years in several formats, including a duo, a trio and the group Aldargaz. Kalaniemi and Alakotila play both their own and each other's arrangements and compositions, as well as some traditional material.
Another of Alakotila's projects is Unto Tango Orchestra (Tango-orkesteri Unto), a tango orchestra that was formed to perform at Expo '98
Expo '98
Expo '98 was an official specialised World's Fair held in Lisbon, Portugal from Friday, May 22 to Wednesday, September 30, 1998. The theme of the fair was "The Oceans, a Heritage for the Future," chosen in part to commemorate 500 years of Portuguese discoveries...
in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. This groups mainly plays Alakotila's rather chamber-music-like arrangements of Finnish tango. In 2004 BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
, JPP and Maria Kalaniemi performed music written by Alakotila for the occasion. Among his more "classic style" works is a folk-music/chamber hybrid, a concerto for accordion and orchestra, originally performed at the folk music festival Haapavesi Folk with Johanna Juhola as the soloist.
Alakotila also works as a teacher at the Sibelius Academy
Sibelius Academy
The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...
and at the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory.