Ilkka Sysimetsä , , , a.
He soon received a grant to study poetry singers in Karelia and continued his rise as the first prominent Finnish musician.
The first decades of Finnish jazz music were strongly based on imitating foreign role models until the 1960s when a new generation of jazz musicians started to create more original music by combining American tradition and Finnish folk music influences.
In the field of classical and contemporary art music, Finland has produced a proportionally exceptional number of musicians and composers.