Känkänen, Aimo (1922–2016)

Aimo Johannes Känkänen (May 24, 1922 in Muolaa – February 12, 2016 in Lahti) was a Finnish organist and composer. Känkänen did most of his life’s work in Lahti. The highly popular annual music event Lahti International Organ Week is founded by Känkänen.

Aimo Johannes Känkänen (24 May 1922, Muolaa – 12 February 2016, Lahti) was a Finnish organist and composer. Känkänen spent most of his life’s work in Lahti. The highly popular annual music event, the Lahti International Organ Week, was founded by Känkänen. Aimo Känkänen, composer, organist and founder of the Lahti International Organ Week, was born in 1922 in Muolaa, on the Karelian Isthmus. He began his music studies in Vyborg in 1938, but the war interrupted them, and he spent the years 1940-44 at the front. After the war, he continued his studies at the Helsinki Church Music Institute, from which he graduated as a cantor-organist in 1947.

Känkänen received his first cantorship in Rauma, where he worked as an organist from 1950 to 1953. In 1952, he completed a diploma in organ playing at the Sibelius Academy and also gave his first concert in Helsinki. In 1959, he was elected organist of the Central Lahti parish.

Känkänen has given concerts in various parts of Finland and has also made concert tours abroad: to Germany, the Nordic countries, Hungary, Estonia and the former Soviet Union. In addition to his position as an organist, Känkänen also worked as an organ teacher at the Lahti Conservatory from 1959 to 1988.

Aimo Känkänen had already started a series of summer concerts in Lahti, “Summer Evening Organ Music”, in 1969. In August 1972, this series of summer organ concerts culminated in concerts by foreign organists on consecutive days, and the following year this developed into the first International Organ Week in Lahti.

Over the years, the Lahti Organ Week found its own place in the Finnish cultural summer. The Lahti International Organ Week was accepted into the Finland Festivals chain in 1979, when the long-awaited new church of the Central Lahti parish, Ristinkirkko, with its new organ, was also used by the Organ Week. Aimo Känkänen served as the director of the Organ Week until 1990.

Aimo Känkänen’s album of Finnish organ music, Iuxta crucem, was released in 1980, and he also participated in the 1989 CD Three Organists at the Church of the Cross, made with Tauno Äikää and Kalevi Kiviniemi.

Känkänen’s interest in composition began already in the late fifties. Three CDs have been made of the compositions created over the years: Elegia (1993), Nocturne (1997) and Concertante (2000).

During his retirement, Känkänen has also written the book Urkuviikkon kronikka, which charts the stages of the Lahti International Organ Week during his directorship from 1973 to 1990.