Abraham Ojanperä

He was orphaned before the age of two but finished primary school and was able to enroll at the teachers' college in Jyväskylä with the help of local benefactors.

About a year and six months later, in May 1882, he had another concert at the festive hall of the University of Helsinki, after which he went on to continue his singing studies in Dresden, Germany.

Ojanperä returned to Finland in 1885 and accepted the tenure of teacher of vocal solos at the Helsinki Music Institute (now Sibelius Academy) even though the Finnish senate had granted him a scholarship for a fourth year of study.

Ojanperä drafted pedagogical principles of teaching and adapted the methods of basic vocal production exercises for the Finnish climate.

After having returned from a year-long tour of studying in the Mediterranean countries in 1896, he was also trusted with the task of teaching chorale and church singing at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Helsinki [fi].

He also selected Finnish music for the two concerts abroad that he organized during his life, one in Berlin in 1895 and one in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1905.

He had received an extra state pension since the beginning of 1913, although he did not leave his job at the time but rather held his position until his death.

An "Ojanperä Fund" intended for regularly rewarding talented singers was founded at the Helsinki Music Institute in the early months of 1916.

A film on Ojanperä's life, Ruusu ja kulkuri [fi] ('The Rose and the Vagabond'), directed by Ilmari Unho, was completed in 1948.