Johanna Juhola
FINLAND
”Johanna Juhola is one of Finland’s most artistically ambitious crafters of contemporary folk music.”
”Whether yearning, zest for life, grief, pain, love, happiness, freshness, comfort – she can express it with her instrument.”
”A true free spirit..”
There’s no one quite like Johanna Juhola; nimble-fingered accordion virtuoso and multi-faceted composer, she blazes her own colourful trail, breezing blithely across style borders and genre barriers with a captivating mix of musical excellence and engaging charm. Her compositions blend the parallel worlds of Argentinian and Finnish tango, following the latter’s path into the melancholic soul of Finnish folk, emerging into the sunlight with uplifting flirtations with pop music and innovative excursions into electronica.
The newest concert ensemble presented by Johanna is a vividly visualized show titled Imaginary Friends. Besides this she performs with her two colourful fantasy tango ensembles, Johanna Juhola Reaktori and the Johanna Juhola Trio.
Tens of millions of TV viewers saw Johanna Juhola play the song “Fantasiatango” as an opener for the Eurovision song contest in 2007 in Helsinki. This composition ended up giving its name to Johannas own music style. Johanna has performed in more than 30 countries, also at Womex at 2009 in the opening ceremony and 2011 a showcase with Johanna Juhola Reaktori.
Johanna is well-known on the Finnish music scene through her influential involvement with several tango and folk music bands, music for theatre, circus, film and television. Juhola has also performed as a soloist of several Finnish symphony orchestras as well as with for example BBC Symphony.
Juhola loves combining music with visual elements and stories and in 2020 she made a three music videos series Conversations with Everyday Ensemble, in which she demonstrated her way of observing musical elements in her everyday surroundings. Trams, dancers along with their rustles and thumps, and beeping domestic appliances become part or Johannas everyday orchestra.
WHERE TO SEE ME AT FOLK UNLOCKED
Date: February 24th
Time: 10pm – 11pm (CT)
Showcase: Folk Unlocked Private Showcase by Johanna Juhola
Date: February 26th
Time: 15:30PM-18:30PM (CT)
Showcase: Global Music Marathon
To register, and for more details head to folk.org/unlocked/