Conductors

Senior conductor

Lieutenant commander (Mus.) Juha Ketola

Juha Ketola (born 1964) studied conducting in the Military Music School in Lahti and the Sibelius Academy between 1998 and 2000. His teachers included such prominent figures as Kalervo Kulmala, Pertti Pekkanen and Atso Almila.

Ketola’s own instrument is the trumpet, and he graduated as a teacher of trumpet in 1994. He completed his postgraduate degree in 1996. He has studied singing as a minor subject and performed as a solo vocalist for many orchestras.

Juha Ketola served as a trumpet leader for the Navy Band from 1990 to 2002. He also performed as a hired musician in a variety of musical productions at the Åbo Svenska Teatern and the Turku City Theatre, along with playing at numerous large festivals throughout Finland.

Ketola also served as the chief and conductor of the Kainuu Military Band from 2003 to 2006, the Conscripts Band of the Finnish Defence Forces from 2006 to 2011 and the Lapland Military Band 2015-2017. He worked as the senior conductor of the Air Force Band 2017-2020 and leads the Navy Band starting 2021.