Ernest Paananen (December 26, 1879 – January 12, 1951) was a

Finnish American Finnish Americans (, ) comprise Americans with ancestral roots in Finland, or Finnish people who immigrated to and reside in the United States. The Finnish-American population is around 650,000. Many Finnish people historically immigrated to ...

violinist, singer, and songwriter. Paananen was born in

Pihtipudas Pihtipudas is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. Pihtipudas is known for the annual javelin carnival and for Lauri Pihkala, Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala, the inventor of Pesäpallo, the Finnish variant of baseball. Location and geogra ...

, and was married to the American musician Fanny Bay. His daughter, the actress and dancer Tuulikki Paananen, starred in several films. The family moved to the US in 1919. Paananen was mostly active as a violinist in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, where he was a member of the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...

for ten years. As a singer and violinist, Paananen made 17 recordings with Antti Kosola's orchestra in New York City between 1929 and 1930. His most notable record was ''Muistatko vielä illan sen'', for which he wrote the lyrics. He died in New York City.

References

People from Pihtipudas Finnish emigrants to the United States 20th-century Finnish male singers 20th-century Finnish male musicians Finnish male songwriters 1879 births 1951 deaths {{US-musician-stub