Teija Niku

Teija Niku (Hapavesi, Finland, 1982) is a Finnish accordionist - composer, performer and pedagogue, an expert in Nordic and Balkan folk music. She is a composer with an excellent sense of melody and an inventive arranger. As a performer, she is distinguished by unique lyrical style of playing the 
accordion.
==Education and Career==
At a very young age, Teija learned about the Finnish folk music tradition, as her parents regularly took her to the folk music festival in Kaustinen. She started playing the accordion when she was only seven years old, at the communal college in Hapavesi. At the same college, she switched from two-row to five-row accordion, which she continued to play at the Yokilaksojen Music Institute. In high school, in Caustinen, she devoted herself to music, where her teachers were Anti Hosioja (two-row accordion) and Raimo Vertainen (five-row accordion). She participated twice in the "Golden Accordion" competition, where she won second place once. After high school, she studied music, for one year. at the Orivesi Institute. In the fall of 2002, she enrolled at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Department of Folk Music, where Ana Mari Kivimeki and Marija Kalaniemi were her professors. She completed her studies of folk music at Sibelius at the level of the academic degree of Master of Arts.
Teija is now a professional folk musician. In addition to Nordic and Balkan music, she plays tango and accordion evergreens and composes too. In addition 
to playing the accordion she plays French musette. She performs throughout Europe and the United States, as well as on radio and television in Finland. In addition to being a diverse performer, Teija is also a contemporary folklore composer and accordion pedagogue.
==Concerts, albums and cooperation with other musicians==
Teija's first album - Finsko Pajdusko was released in 2011 - mainly based on Balkan folk music. The album received positive reviews in the 
Finnish press. Helsingin Sanomat, the largest newspaper in Finland, included Finsko Pajdusko on their album list, and nominated it for Ethno Album of the Year at the Emma Gala Awards, the Finnish version of the Grammy.
Her second album, Memento, recorded in April 2017, received positive reviews from the Nordic Music Review and the Accordion Central. The album features nine compositions where Teija plays accordion and sings. Her compositions in this album are a mixture of jazz, Nordic, and Balkan folk music.The same as her first album, this one was included in the list of The Best Albums of the Year on the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper and was also nominated the Ethno Album of the Year at the Emma Gala Awards 
The name of the album Memento, refers to musical memories that unconsciously appear when we compose music, as well as memories that evoke in listeners 
the music they once heard. Teija called Memento - the last song in the album, when one listener told her after the concert that the melody, which was not named, reminded him of something from the past.
When making the new album, she did not want to reduce her composition to typical forms of folk dance. Instead, she wanted to give herself more freedom by 
not building strict genre-based restrictions or closing herself off in some way. In addition to her compositions, the album also contains a new version 
of Tapio Rautavara's classic "Huma", which uses riding as a metaphor for freedom . The song "Iksi rusu" (literally: one rose) mixes the text of this 
Finnish folk song with the Macedonian melody "Eleno kerko" (Helen, my daughter). Arrangements often grow from minimalist to majestic, with tones various 
instruments that twist and overflow, but there is also one song that is played exclusively on the accordion.
Teija has long dreamed of creating an album featured by numerous guest musicians of the extensive musical expertise; this was made possible with the 
help of Kimpi Huisman, who recorded and arranged this album. Eleven of Finland's most famous jazz and folk musicians took part in the recording of this album.
Along with Memento, Teija also founded the new Teija Niku Kvartetti, which, in August 2017, had their first concerts in Finland. Apart from Teija, the quartet includes Joakim Bergal (saxophone), Juha Kujanpa (piano) and Tero Tovinen (double bass), all of whom also played in the album.
Teija Niku and Sara Pajunen, American violinist of Finnish origin, performed together as the Aalottar, a duo that plays and sings folk music. 
Duo Aalottar performed in the United States and the European festivals including the Festival of folk music in Kaustinen, Finland and 
Sounds of the North in Gdansk, Poland. So far they have released two albums: Transit (lit., in passing) (2014) and Ameriikan laulu (lit. American Song) (2018). This duo plays and sings in both Finnish and English, mixing traditional and modern folk music of Finnish and Finnish expatriates in America.
Teija also recorded albums with Polka Chicks , Karuna and Aalottar and also worked as a guest musician on various recording projects. 
Also, her accordion is represented in the game Angry Birds. 
Along with Tuulikki Bartoshik, Hannah James, Karen Tweed, Mairearad Green, Teija Niku started an all-female accordion project, which debuted at Glasgow's Celtic Connection Festival in 2018.Accordion and World Best Contemporary Accordionists by Maximillien de Lafayette, Times Square Press New York, April 19, 2019 p. 252
In 2019. Ääaniä Records released Teija's third solo album Hetkessä (Overnight).
==Awards and honors==
With the Balkan, (the group with which she recorded the album Finsko Pajdusko), Teija won the first place at the prestigious Konsta Jilha
competition in 2012. She also won 2nd place on the live broadcasted Kultainen Harmonikka Competition in 2000. Twice (1996 & 1998), Teija won the Finnish National Accordion Championship by playing the 2-row accordion.Teija Niku biography in From the shadow of an accordion to eternity by Maximillien de Lafayette, Times Square Press, New York, July 17, 2019, pages 317-320
Teija Niku was the artistic director of the Hapavesi Folk Music Festival, as of 2017.
Category:1982 births
Category:Finnish people
Category:Finnish composers
Category:Finnish performance artists
Category:Finnish educators