Tellu Turkka (formerly Tellu Paulasto, Tellu Virkkala, born 1969,

Koskenpää Koskenpää is a village and List of former municipalities of Finland, former municipality of Finland in the Central Finland region. It was consolidated with Jämsänkoski in 1969, which in turn was consolidated with Jämsä in 2009. It bordered ...

) is a Finnish

fiddler A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially syno ...

and singer in the contemporary folk / neo-folk music genre. She studied violin at the Jyväskylä Conservatory from 1978 to 1985, at the

Savonlinna Savonlinna (, , ; ) is a town in Finland, located in the eastern interior of the country. It lies in the Finnish Lakeland, the South Savo region. The population of Savonlinna is approximately , while the Savonlinna sub-region, sub-region has a pop ...

Art College from 1985 to 1988, and at the Folk Music Department of the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy (, ) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and 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 ...

from 1989 to 2001. She also studied

Hardanger Fiddle A hardanger fiddle () is a traditional stringed instrument considered the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than four as on a standard v ...

with Ånon Egeland in Norway from 1992 to 1993. She is probably best known for her work with the band Hedningarna (1990–1996, 2001–2003). During her work with Hedningarna, she developed a strong interest in the ancient Finnish runo-songs, which compose the Finnish national epic, the

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' () is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory ...

. Tellu has also performed with the ensembles Loituma (1989–1991; she was a founding member), Piniartut, Tallari (1997–1998, 2001–2002) and Luna Nova (1996–2001), and is currently performing with her group Suden Aika along with Liisa Matveinen, Katariina Airas and Nora Vaura. She also participated in Ruth MacKenzie's musical theatre performance ''Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden'' at the

Guthrie Theatre The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions among Sir Tyrone Gut ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

in 1999.

Discography

With Hedningarna

*Kaksi (1992) *Trä (1994)

With Liisa Matveinen

* Mateli (1999)

Solo

* Pähkinänsydän (1999; children's music)

With Piniartut

*Piniartut (2001; Tellu also produced this album)

With Tallari

* Virtaa (1999) * Mieron tammat (2002) * Runolaulutanssit (2003)

With Suden Aika

* Suden Aika (1996) * Etsijä (2004) * Unta (2006)

External links

Suden Aika
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkka, Tellu 1969 births Living people 20th-century Finnish women singers Finnish fiddlers Finnish women violinists 21st-century Finnish violinists 21st-century Finnish women singers