"The Karelian woman with charisma"
(by Stig Andersson, 2005)
Eila Pöllänen
"The Karelian woman with charisma"
(by Stig Andersson, 2005)
Eila (to the right) often welcomes international guests in her home.
Eila Pöllänen, The intensive Karelian singer won a big song-competition in Finland already at the age of fifteen and the prize was a trip to Paris! The stay in Paris started her big passion for ballads. Eila has since her visit there been singing thousands of ballads in different languages, mostly to her own accompaniment on guitar.
Beside her interest in singing to guitar and piano, Eila has created her own songs and written music to a lot of well-known Nordic poets as Ferlin, Dan Andersson and J.L.Runeberg to mention some from Scandinavia and also to modern Finnish, Swedish and Swedish-Finnish poets.
Eila has a broad education and experience in both singing, making music and linguistic studies. She has studied at the Academy of Sibelius in Finland (Ritva Eerola song, Ilpo Riihimäki chorus conducting) and also in Germany and Austria (Mozarteum). She has made linguistic studies at the universities of Stockholm, Vaasa (Finland) and Petrozawodsk in the republic of Karelia (at that time the USSR).
Eila was crowned the best Finnish singing troubadour in Sweden in 1998.
Eila has made performance on TV and radio in Sweden, Finland and the Republics of Karelia, USSR.
By her own interest and self studies Eila has become a master of Learning Entertainment in as many different subjects as "The Woman in Kalevala", "Forgotten goddesses in the northern mythology", "L.J.Runeberg and his women" and "The history of the sauna" and the traditions connected to it. To all these performances she sings her own songs and plays her own music, suitable to the chosen subject.
Eila Pöllänen is a keen worker for supporting Finnish and Finno-Ugric culture, especially the Karelian culture and language, known wherever she is. To make it possible she started nine years ago a society, "The Swedish-Finnish Culture society" and 2003 also "the Kalevala Society of Stockholm".
Eila has been responsible for different exhibitions with programs for anniversaries and other subjects as "Kalevala" (Elias Lönnrot), "J.L.Runeberg", "The minorities and their languagees", "The Woman´s Day", "The most beautiful songs for Christmas" and "Forgotten goddesses". As a chairman of the SFC society Eila also has invited well-known artists and choruses from abroad. For example Chorus Oma Pajo from The Republic of Karelia was invited to make a trip in the middle of Sweden to sing at different places with Eila as a guide and leader.
Eila has during the last three years studied the Runesinging of Kalevala and the laments. In October 2002 Eila became worldchampion in Runesinging at a big competition in Helsinki. The judges, poets Kai Nieminen and Ilpo Tiihonen announced that Eila was the winner among 18 finalists as she had a new way of making Kalevala poetry and by expressing her poetry in total new musical forms.
She has been invited to sing at different song Festivals. Nowadays she brings her daughter Elin, aged 13, to many festivals where they sing together. They have been invited to festivals in Montana USA, Jakobstad Finland and to the Republic of Mordvinien, 600 km southeast Moscow to sing and play music at the Finno-Ugric festival on the Volga river and towns along the river.
Eila and Elin have made the first Cd-record in the Karelian language, livvi, in Sweden. The Cd namned "Enzikukkaine -nThe first flower" is now used in schools in the Republic of Karelia as an example of songs for children in livvi.
Eila has e-post: eila.pollanen@swipnet.se
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