Jarkko Riihimäki
Duke Ellington allegedly once stated: “There are simply two kinds of music: good music and the other kind.” Jarkko Riihimäki has always been passionate about many kinds of music.The son of two choir conductors, he grew up in a musical household.
Growing up, he spent a lot of time wherever his parents were working. Whether in music schools, choir rehearsals, or churches; you name it, Jarkko was there soaking it all in. ”Of course it was all about playing with other kids”, he says, “but I guess something of that music in the background must have stayed. I remember that certain pieces always made me emotional. Also the sound of the organ gave me chills — sitting next to my father playing it was the coolest thing. Made me kind of proud as well.”
Jarkko started learning instruments at an early age. He started cello when he was 5 and piano a year later. “Many of even my closest friends now don’t know that I played the cello. And for 11 years! I guess I was a very bad student; playing around with the neighbourhood kids was much more important than practicing. But the absolute highlight was playing Dvorak’s 9th symphony in a youth orchestra. For me, having played the cello is pretty much the core for becoming a music arranger, especially when writing for the orchestra. So despite the lack of motivation from time to time, I’m very thankful for those years; they gave me a lot.”
Playing piano was more of a natural thing for him. “Already as a child I would spend hours at the piano, just trying to learn things I had heard. A pop song, something we sang in the school, or even the tunes from tv shows. That might sound like a joke, but trying to learn those TV theme songs was actually not unlike arranging. For some kids I might have been a little weird, going around with a Sony Walkman on and listening to Mozart. But then again, an hour later it was Wham or Michael Jackson. It was only later that I started seeing a connection between different styles. Going from pop music to listening to jazz was a natural path. And the more I learned the harmonic progressions of jazz, the better I began to understand harmonic structures in orchestral music.”
While studying at the renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Jarkko’s main interest were in the area of German and French art song (Lied and mélodie). “I took all the classes I could and participated in numerous masterclasses. I also accompanied my fellow students’ lessons, which was really the best way to gather repertoire.” Later this experience would become essential when working at the College of Music Berlin (UDK). Also playing with singers feels very natural for him. “As a pianist one has to understand how a singer breathes, and softly manipulate the music towards the end of a phrase so that it sounds organic and natural. Breathing together is, of course, the key to any kind of music.”
An open musical mind led Jarkko to play and study many kinds of music. A workshop of the late Horace Boyer in Connecticut was a mind-blowing experience for him at age sixteen. “That definitely gave me a kick to learn about African-American musical traditions. He would even let me play, I still remember that the song was It’s my desire, an original of his. Wow… there was something about this music that gave me the feeling as if I had known it for a very long time.” Only a couple years later he became the pianist of the Helsinki – based choir “His Master’s Noise”, a job he kept for the next six years.
As an arranger, Riihimäki feels most at home when working with different musical worlds simultaneously. ”Let’s say there is a production with a pop artist, and s/he sings with a classical orchestra. I am familiar with the pop aesthetics, but I also know how a classically trained musician reads the music. So it’s about making the group of musicians understand each other. When writing for an orchestra I feel like a kid in a candy store, there are so many possibilities!”