POKELA, MARTTI (, Haapavesi), kantele player, singer, and player of several folk instruments, one of Finland's most famous folk music performers.
Pokela was born and raised in Ostrobothnia, where the five-stringed kantele was last in living use and traditional music is still being played. Although self-taught on the kantele, he became a kantele teacher, a composer of music for the instrument, and copublisher with Erkki Ala-Könni of a kantele method, Pienois-Kanteleen opas (Instruction...