Hannu Lepola

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Hannu Lepola
Origin	Lappeenranta, Finland
Genre(s)	Choral, a cappella, traditional folk, pop
Instrument(s)	Voice
Voice type(s)	Tenor
Years active	1990's – Present
Label(s)	Plastinka Records
Associated acts	Rajaton
Website	[1]www.rajaton.net

1 Hannu Lepola
2 Biography
3 Rajaton
4 Discography
5 External links

[edit] Hannu Lepola

Hannu Lepola is a Tenor vocalist in the a cappella choral ensemble Rajaton, from Finland. He joined the group in 1998 , eventually touring the globe performing, after numerous other musical projects he was involved in. It eventually took over his interest from all the other groups.

[edit] Biography

Hannu grew up in Lappeenranta , a town next to the Russian-Finland border. In his youth, he sang in choirs, and studied various classical instruments. In his teen years, he says that he " discovered rock music, got myself a guitar, started to write songs of my own and played drums in bands." A huge inspiration for him, was Sting, and he had ambitions of becoming a rockstar.

He studied at the Pop & Jazz Conservatory in Finland, and met singer Essi Wuorela in 1998. She told him of the group she was part of , Rajaton, and they were looking for a tenor. He went to an audition and quickly realized "that this was the kind of music-making that I wanted to have a share in. The group seemed extremely purposeful and ambitious, and its members were (and still are, ever more and more) not only great singers, but also wonderful characters and good company."

Said about the group , in his online mini-autobiography:

"Little by little Rajaton has taken over my other musical projects, and I don't daydream about becoming a rock star anymore – at least not all the time... ;-) By lucky coincidences I now have something more than stardom: I'm able to make a living by making better music than I ever could even imagine to exist."

^[1]

[edit] Rajaton

Rajaton has since toured Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, The U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark and his native Finland, on several world tours. They have recorded 7 albums so far, a live Christmas DVD in 2003, television shows, radio broadcasts. Many performances and music videos are freely viewable on the internet, on Youtube.

[edit] Discography

Rajaton Albums from first, to most recent:

1. Nova (released August 14th 2000) -new settings to Finnish poems from folk poetry to contemporary poetry. The first takes were recorded in June 1999, right after Rajaton won The International Contest for Vocal Ensembles in Tampere.

2. Boundless(released October 26th 2001) - Mostly English, Rajaton's second album

3. Sanat (released November 1st 2002) -New sacred music in Finnish, English, Latin, and Medieval Irish produced by choir director Pasi Hyökki and recorded live in Siuntio Church. The album title is equivocal – the word ‘sanat’ means ‘words’ in Finnish and ‘heals’ in Latin.

4. Joulu (released October 24th 2003) -A double Christmas album all in Finnish.The album peaked at number two on the Finnish album charts and has already sold platinum.

5. Kevät (released April 20th 2005) -new Finnish Pop music. The album peaked at number three in the Finnish album charts and sold gold within six weeks after its release.

6. Out of Bounds (released April 5th 2006)

7. Rajaton Sings ABBA (released November 1st 2006) -with the Lahti Symphony. The album went to number 1 in Finland, and went platinum in a month.