Lauri Saikkola

Lauri Saikkola studied violin at the Music Institute in Vyborg (formerly Viipuri) from 1919-28 and he worked there as a teacher after graduation. Privately, he studied composition from 1930. In 1929 and 1930 he made study trips to Czechoslovakia and Austria. During this period, he also played the viola in the Viipuri Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1934 Saikkola went to Helsinki and became violist of the local city orchestra. From 1953-73 he worked as a freelance music journalist for the Finnish Radio YLE and also, from 1965, as a freelance composer.

Saikkola’s compositional output includes 10 symphonies, orchestral works, chamber and vocal music, as well as three operas: the musical fairy tale Taivaaseen menijä (He Who Came to Heaven), for -the comic opera Mestarin nuuskarasia (The Master’s Snuff Box). Saikkola also composed the first signature tune for Finnish television. His op. 23 1500 m - or One Mile - is subtitled Sports Parody for Orchestra. This piece, entered in 1952, has a duration of 5-minutes and was composed as early as 1933. The Official Report, however, gives 1947.