In the 19th century, Orthodox culture surrounded Karelian jouhikko players as they traveled from village to village performing dance music for common folk. Did the sound of church bells and sacred melodies influence their playing style? What if a spiritually inclined musician had ended up playing sacred tunes—normally sung—with their jouhikko, an instrument often considered sinful?

In this concert by jouhikko player Ilkka Heinonen and bell player Vladimir Belov, the sacred and the secular meet. Alongside Karelian dance melodies, Russian spiritual folk tunes, and the sound of bells, the raw voice of the jouhikko—a traditional Karelian dance instrument—resonates, weaving connections between coexisting musical cultures.

Ilkka Heinonen is a Helsinki-based musician and composer specializing in folk and world music. His instruments include the jouhikko, double bass, violone, and viola da gamba, with a deep passion for early music. As one of the pioneers of jouhikko playing, Heinonen has sought to expand the instrument’s expressive possibilities, drawing inspiration from European jazz, Renaissance music, and Karelian jouhikko traditions. In addition to performing with ensembles influenced by European folk traditions, Heinonen has appeared as a soloist and orchestral musician in both contemporary and early music concerts and projects. He is currently completing an artistic doctoral degree on the expressive potential of the jouhikko at the Sibelius Academy’s MuTri doctoral program.

Vladimir Belov graduated from the renowned Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg in 2008. Since 2009, he has served as principal percussionist of the Kymi Sinfonietta, and since 2018, as guest principal percussionist of the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra in China, as well as a percussion teacher at the Kotka Region Music Institute. While living in St. Petersburg, Belov studied church bell ringing, and has continued this tradition in Finland. He leads an annual church bell ringing course at the New Valamo Monastery and regularly performs in church bell concerts at the Church of St. Nicholas in Kotka.

Ilkka Heinonen, jouhikko
Vladimir Belov, bells