New approachable Finnish compositions for choir – SuLaSol

Reijo Kekkonen was born in 1961 in Finland. He studied at the Sibelius Academy from 1980 and graduated in 1991 as a music teacher. His major subject at the Academy was the violin. He also has an exam in oboe, piano and singing. He studied composition and music theory under Vladimir Agopov and Tapani Länsiö. Choral conducting Kekkonen has studied under Erkki Pullinen and Matti Hyökki.

Reijo Kekkonen was acting as a music teacher when he was assigned a post in Sulasol (the Finnish Choral Association) in 1988. He was then employed as the musical expert of the association. Between 1990 and 1992 he worked as an editor at the publishing house Fazer Music and came back to Sulasol in 1992 and has been part of the staff ever since.

Reijo Kekkonen has held several positions of trust in various associations in Finland. He has also been a member of the planning committee of the Nordic-Baltic Choral Festival 1996-2008, member of the artistic committee of the Tampere Vocal Music Festival since 1997 and a member of the organizing committee of the Harald Andersén international choral competition at the Sibelius Academy 2001-2018. Kekkonen was a member of the board of the International Federation for Choral Music 2002-2008 and a member of the board of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat 2009-2018. In 2002-2014 he acted as a “watcher” for the international choral show-case Polyfollia in St.Lô, France. Kekkonen has also been a member in several juries of composition and arranging as well as choral competitions.

Since his schooldays Reijo Kekkonen has been singing in choirs. He was a professional singer in the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir for 23 years and several years in the Sibelius Academy Vocal Ensemble. He has also conducted choirs (mainly youth and female choirs), but his main domain is singing and composing. As a composer his output is mainly choral and vocal music, but it does include also some chamber music.