Saa­ra Ko­leh­mai­nen

Heli Moi­la­nen set asi­de more ‘prac­ti­cal’ ca­reers and ul­ti­ma­te­ly chose mu­sic—a path that has al­so cla­ri­fied her own place and pur­po­se in the world.

Even as a child, it was evi­dent that Heli Moi­la­nen had been gi­ven the gift of mu­si­ca­li­ty. She de­ligh­ted those around her with her mu­sic. Yet when it came time to choo­se a pro­fes­si­on, prac­ti­ca­li­ty won out. “Pe­op­le said you need a sen­sib­le ca­reer – so­met­hing where you can conc­re­te­ly help ot­hers.”

She trai­ned for a “sen­sib­le” pro­fes­si­on – and then anot­her. “In the end, I lis­te­ned to that in­ner roar that had been pul­ling me to­ward mu­sic all along,” Moi­la­nen desc­ri­bes, re­fer­ring to the strong in­ner cal­ling.

Now at age 35, she has just gra­du­a­ted from the Ou­lu Uni­ver­si­ty of Ap­p­lied Scien­ces as a mu­sic pe­da­go­gue with voi­ce as her ma­jor. In ad­di­ti­on, she is a choir sin­ger, choir di­rec­tor, com­po­ser, ar­ran­ger, and or­ga­nist. At the very le­ast.

“I like being ab­le to do many dif­fe­rent things.”

A Go-Bet­ween

Mu­sic can al­so ser­ve as a brid­ge bet­ween pe­op­le, and for Moi­la­nen, it has done just that. She says that if re­la­ti­ons­hips could be pla­ced on a scale, friends­hips for­med through mu­sic would hold a spe­ci­al place.

“When we sing or play to­get­her—when we phrase and bre­at­he to­get­her—we re­ach a kind of fre­qu­en­cy in that re­la­ti­ons­hip that you simp­ly can’t ac­cess in any ot­her way,” she exp­lains.

On­ly re­cent­ly has Moi­la­nen be­gun to feel that her re­la­ti­ons­hip with mu­sic is about so­met­hing gre­a­ter. She com­pa­res using her gift and how it is exp­res­sed to how any­o­ne might ad­mi­re a flo­wer cre­a­ted by the Cre­a­tor, gro­wing in its own time. “I’m just a kind of ve­hic­le in this.”

Being sing­le, wit­hout a fa­mi­ly of her own, has al­so led her to ref­lect on her pur­po­se and place in the world. She seems to have found that sen­se of pur­po­se through mu­sic, and it feels deep­ly me­a­ning­ful. “I ha­ven’t gi­ven birth to any child­ren in this world, but so­met­hing el­se has been born – com­po­si­ti­ons and ar­ran­ge­ments for sha­red joy and de­light. And I can ad­mi­re them to­get­her with ot­hers,” she says.

Choi­ces Roo­ted in Va­lu­es

Moi­la­nen’s com­po­si­ti­ons and ar­ran­ge­ments usu­al­ly ari­se from a need or com­mis­si­on and are sha­ped by the text. But not­hing is cre­a­ted in a va­cuum. Sin­ce child­hood, she has lis­te­ned to a great deal of mu­sic and ab­sor­bed inf­lu­en­ces. “So­me­ti­mes I hear comp­le­te­ly new mu­sic in my head – so­met­hing I don’t even ne­ces­sa­ri­ly know how to bring out. It’s not enough for me to put dead no­tes on pa­per. A com­po­si­ti­on on­ly be­co­mes mu­sic when it is sung off the page.”

She do­esn’t feel a pull to­ward anyt­hing bey­ond dis­tinct­ly clas­si­cal mu­sic. This was evi­dent, for examp­le, in her the­sis pro­ject – a mu­si­cal wors­hip ser­vi­ce per­for­med in Ou­lu Cat­hed­ral, for which she com­po­sed and ar­ran­ged all the mu­sic from be­gin­ning to end.

In the fall, Moi­la­nen will be­co­me the di­rec­tor of the Me­lo­di­am choir in Ou­lu. The choir and its yo­ung sin­gers are al­re­a­dy fa­mi­li­ar to her, and she half-jo­king­ly cal­ls her­self their “se­cond mom.”

“I have 50 child­ren – cho­ris­ters – for whom I’m a mu­sic edu­ca­tor. They con­fi­de in me about things like re­la­ti­ons­hips or how they’re co­ping.”

When as­ked what mat­ters most to her as a choir di­rec­tor, she finds it hard to choo­se just one thing. “That it func­ti­ons as a com­mu­ni­ty, be­cau­se you hear that in the mu­sic-ma­king as well. If a cho­ris­ter can trust anot­her cho­ris­ter, then they dare to pro­du­ce sound. When it feels safe, you dare to let go, to be pre­sent, to re­so­na­te to­get­her.” She al­so sees her­self as a mu­sic edu­ca­tor who gui­des sin­gers to­ward ap­p­rop­ri­a­te re­per­toi­re through, for examp­le, her prog­ram choi­ces.

Still Le­ar­ning

Some time ago, Moi­la­nen re­cei­ved an in­vi­ta­ti­on to join the SRK mu­sic com­mit­tee. The in­vi­ta­ti­on surp­ri­sed her. “What does this even mean, and what am I sup­po­sed to do there?” she re­cal­ls thin­king at first.

Among ot­her things, the com­mit­tee plans and ap­p­ro­ves SRK’s re­cor­ding pro­duc­ti­ons. The dis­cus­si­ons there have left her fee­ling en­ric­hed. “The con­ver­sa­ti­on is ref­res­hing. It gi­ves a sen­se of sa­fe­ty – that we can dis­cuss even dif­fi­cult to­pics in a good spi­rit and with a sha­red goal. It’s been won­der­ful to be in the role of a le­ar­ner,” she says, re­fer­ring es­pe­ci­al­ly to the ex­pe­rien­ces sha­red by those ol­der than her­self.

Com­mit­tee mem­bers al­so ser­ve as coor­di­na­tors for pro­duc­ti­ons, and Moi­la­nen has al­re­a­dy been in­vol­ved in one re­cor­ding pro­ject. “When I was there – in re­he­ar­sals and re­cor­dings – and li­ving that mo­ment, I had this fee­ling: I need to be here. I think the ent­hu­si­asm I felt car­ried over strong­ly to the choir. It felt like this place was made just for me.”