Ameriikan Poijat
This Finnish band will perform a free concert on August 2 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. at The Broz Event Venue
Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America), Finnish American Brass Septet, was founded in 1990. They’ve been asked to play performances in some rather unusual settings, such as in an ice arena, in fishing boats on the Perhojoki river, on a raft in an abandoned mine, at Finnish border defense installations, at a McDonnell-Douglas military aircraft plant, in a Wisconsin cow pasture, on a Florida beach, at an instrument museum, in a barn, and in a one room school house. It’s not that they have exclusively sought out bizarre venues, but the a seven-piece group is very mobile, and the Finnish brass music we celebrate seems to have drawn us off the beaten path. Made up of Midwestern musicians, some of Finnish descent, we have been sharing the charm of the old Finnish brass band music and have also performed the newer compositions for septet that have proliferated recently. Our main inspiration has been from our brass playing colleagues and friends in Finland who have also been keeping the tradition alive and generously sharing their experience with us about this music. The Finnish brass septet repertoire is meaningful ethnic art, and also has an inherent musicality that is attractive to many listeners.
More recently Poijat has played in Philadelphia, Delaware, Texas, and Canada. We have also made regular appearances in Minnesota and Wisconsin. During this time a new repertoire has developed. With the passage of more than a decade since Ameriikan Poijat began to play together, the musical inflections and nuances that create their style have continued to change and develop. They have been presenting music in concerts, at ethnic festivals, in regional tours, at music conferences, recreating authentic social dance music along with concert repertoire from a bygone era. “Poijat” was formed in Northfield, Minnesota by Paul Niemistö and made its first concert tour to a Finnish ethnic festival in Florida the next spring, and then made its first trip to Finland in 1992 for the Finnish 75 anniversary. Poijat has returned Finland several time since, most recently help celebrate the Finnish Centennial in 2017.
During the 1980’s, Paul Niemistö made contact with many Finnish brass players, thereby discovering this relatively unknown musical tradition. Members of Ameriikan poijat are musicians and teachers are from greater Minnesota, a region where many Nordic settlers arrived, Finns especially in the north. Ameriikan poijat has developed programming around beautiful old concert music and dance arrangements, and has enjoyed wide popularity among Finnish American music lovers and festival goers, and to an increasingly wider audience.
