Reijo Karvonen, who also represented Finland in Eurovision, has died

Musician Reijo Karvonen has died at the age of 73. Karvonen died on Monday of an illness in Austria, where he was on a skiing vacation.

He was born in Kuusamo on January 27, 1953.

Tieto’s death is confirmed to HS by a friend and musician colleague Leevi Leppänen who was in Austria as Karvonen’s travel companion.

Karvonen was known for his versatile music career, which included a career as a solo singer, and as a member of the Ikaros band, composer and music pedagogue.

The Eurovision Song Contest was an important part of Karvonen’s story: he participated in them both as a composer and as a backing singer.

Karvonen his musical career began as a teenager in his hometown in Kuusamo. He learned to play on a bass built by his older brother and joined various ensembles.

When he was in high school, he moved to Helsinki and ended up playing music I met the People to the band.

Double bass studies at the Helsinki Conservatory changed to the Sibelius Academy, where Karvonen got to know Anssi Tikanmäki, Peter Lercheen and Esa-Markku Juutilainen.

The band Ikaros, led by Karvonen, was born from coursemates in music education studies, in which Upi Sorvali later joined as drummer.

Ikaros was especially important to Tikanmäki, which Landscape pictures from Finland The band acted as the orchestra for the album. Tikanmäki played by Ikaros Kiutaköngäs also ended up in the Autumn Song final in 1978. The group worked as a studio band for other artists as well.

Karvonen recorded his first solo album Tullossa in 1975, partly with his own compositions.

In 1979, it was our turn Tove Jansson’s musical fairy tale Who would comfort Nyytito which Peter Lundbladin compositions in Finnish Kirsi Kunnas. The album became a children’s music classic. Karvonen has performed its songs Who would comfort Nyyti – concerts, which were in his program for this spring as well.

In total, Karvonen managed to work as a producer-composer or performer on more than 15 albums.

To Eurovision Reijo Karvonen ended up already in his student days in 1977, when he sang Monica Aspelund Lapland– in the background chorus of the song.

The 1978 five-year qualifying round was Karvonen’s celebration. He and Ikaros competed for the Eurovision spot Eero Luparin with a composition, but Karvonen ended up at the Eurovision Song Contest in Paris with his own composition Give love a chance. It was presented by Seija Simola.

The second-to-last place and two points guaranteed that the reception at home was brutal. Simola’s career ended there, and Karvonenka did not remember the time fondly afterwards.

“Eurovision was then a matter of national self-esteem,” he said In an interview with HS in 2013.

In the same 1978 five-piece qualifiers, there was also a competition to represent Finland in Eastern Europe’s own singing competition, Interviiui. Ikaros and Karvonen got to represent Finland in Sopot, Poland with a song To other countries.

in the 1980s Reijo Karvonen left touring and decided to invest in the profession of music teacher. He got a teaching position at Kruununhaa high school, a “dying girls’ school”, which gave rise to the prestigious music high school known today as Sibelius high school.

Karvonen developed the school’s teaching of rhythm music and sound technology in an increasingly professional direction and entered into a collaboration with Oulunkylä’s rhythm music-focused music college, which provided skilled teachers to the school.

In the 1990s, Karvonen became a freelancer, built his own studio and focused on teaching more and more at the pop & jazz conservatory in Oulunkylä. Since 2000, Karvonen taught future studio professionals at Stadia and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Karvonen has also worked as the executive director of Säveltäjät ja Sanoittät Elvis ry and in various positions at the Konserttikeskus, which organizes school concerts.

Reijo Karvonen was known for his flowing back hair, the preservation of which was a principle for him. “I once promised at the Sibelius Academy that the ponytail will remain until rhythm music and classical music are valued equally and it is also reflected in the support of society.”

“So your hair can grow in peace”, Karvonen declared in a birthday interview in 2013.