Conductors

 

Chief Conductor Major (Mus.) Ville Paakkunainen

 

Ville Paakkunainen (born 1978) served as the chief conductor of the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces 2017-2020. Before that, he served as the conductor of the Guards Band, the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces and the chief of the Military Music School’s course department.

In 2007, Paakkunainen graduated with a Master’s degree in music from the Sibelius Academy with a major in conducting a wind orchestra. At the Sibelius Academy he was taught by Kalervo Kulmala, Pertti Pekkanen, Kari Tikka and Atso Almila, among other notable names.

Paakkunainen has served as a conductor for the Helsinki Symphonic Winds, Wind Band of the Lahti Conservatory and the Tampere Music Academy Orchestra. He has also taught conducting at the Military Music School and many summer camps.

 

 

Conductor Captain Mikko Tourunen

Tourunen’s musical career began at the age of six when he started to learn playing the piano. Later on, he started clarinet studies as well, and at the Military Music Institute in 1989, it became his main instrument.  Having achieved his military musician’s qualification, he continued his studies at Päijät-Häme Conservatory and Central Finland Conservatory from where  he graduated as a music educator in 2001. 

Tourunen has worked for the Air Force Band since 1994, and over the years, the saxophone has become his main instrument.   Tourunen has studied conducting on various courses under Kalervo Kulmala and  Juha Törmä, among others. 

Next to  his main job, Tourunen has long worked as a theatre musician  and a teacher at a number of music institutions. 

From 2018, he served as the Air Force Band’s Deputy Conductor and started as the Band's Deputy Chief on 1 January 2023.

 

Assistant Condutor Sergeant Major Jussi Kosonen

Kosonen’s music studies set off  when he started learning the piano at the age of six in Lappeenranta.  Later on, he chose the trombone as his main instrument. 

In 2001, after his military service, he embarked on his vocational studies at the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory and, a few years later, at the Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia (Metropolia UAS).  He graduated from Stadia in 2009 with the trombone as his main instrument and the bass trombone has his secondary instrument.

Kosonen was hired by the Air Force Band as a section leader in 2008 . He became a soloist in 2021.  In addition, he has worked as a part-time free lance musician in Finland and abroad (incl. in pop/rock bands and theatre and symphony orchestras). He has served as a trombone teacher at several institutions, most recently at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (JAMK) from 2015 to 2019. 

In 2023, he was hired by the Defence Forces as a Marching Bandmaster (drum major). 

He has been working as the Air Force Band’s Assistant Conductor since the year 2023.