Pauliina Pohjolainen

My name is Pauliina Pohjolainen. I'm a 26 years old finnish saxophone player and composer. I graduated last summer (2007) from the Vestjysk Musikkonservatorium-Academy Of Music in Esbjerg and after having lived 3 years in Denmark I moved back to Finland. I play the alto and soprano saxophones and I have a really nice silver Selmer Super Balanced Action alto saxophone from the year 1938. My influences as a saxophone player come from nordic and modern jazz. I love playing free. If I have to name some saxophone players I really like and admire I'll say John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Jan Garbarek, Ornette Coleman and Cannonball Adderley.--------------------------------------------------- -----------As a composer my strongest influences come obviously from same sources as a saxophone player, from nordic- and modern jazz, but one can also hear the great influence of finnish folk song melodies and the sound of never ending forests. I'm also influenced by artists such as Django Bates, Tim Berne, Jean Sibelius and Sting.------------------------------------------------------ -- Recently I've been mostly working with my danish quartet which is an energetic band with electric guitar, sax, bass and drums. We play my music which is getting to be more and more based on strong melodies and free improvisation. We were touring in Finland in March 2008. Over the past couple of years I've also worked a lot with my quintet, which is a really Scandinavian band in many ways. We had a tour in Finland in October 2006. I also play a lot with the trio Pohjolainen-Kauppinen-Pohjolainen. I write music for bigger orchestras such as "the Very Big Band" and I have also written music for a modern dance choreography (for 5 horns, guitar, bass and percussion). It was first performed in Esbjerg on 23.5.2007. In May 2007 I won an international saxophone competition in Nõmme Jazz Festival in Estonia.---------------------------------------------------- --Currently I'm working on writing some new music for a new finnish band, but more about that later...!