Viola Turpeinen Biography     Other Viola Turpeinen CD's

Viola Turpeinen (1909-1958) was the best-known Finnish American accordionist of her time. The second volume of her complete recordings takes us through the years 1929-45.

Viola was born to a Finnish-American family in Champion. Michigan and learned to play the accordion from Italian immigrant musicians in her hometown. In 1927 she teamed with the Finnish violinist John (Jukka) Rosendahl. They toured Finnish-American communities all over America an signed a recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York. By early 1929, they had already made more than twenty records. On May 10th they were again called to the Victor studios at 111 East 58th Street to record Guido Deiro's Derina polka-mazurka (under the Finnish title Ihana maa) and three Finnish dance tunes, Tahti valssi, Kaustisen polkka, and Iloinen polkka.

Soon after the recording session, Viola made her only visit to Finland. Viola and John crossed the Atlantic on the steamship Gripsholm, performing for passengers in all classes. They arrived in Helsinki on May 31st. On June 7th they played for an audience of 1200 at the Workers Hall (Tyovaentalo) in Helsinki. Afterwards they traveled widely in Finland and returned to New York in August on the Gripsholm. They played in New York for a couple of weeks and continued their tour to the Midwest. On Monday, October 29th they appeared at the Camels Hall in Duluth. There they met another Finnish-American accordionist, Sylvia Polso's scrapbook contains advertisements for dances dated January 1930. The group usually appeared as Viola Turpeinen & Co, or under the names of all three players. The new trio became very popular. Between January and October they visited nearly all Finnish communities in the Great Lakes area. The list of their appearances includes Ashland, Aurora, Bark Point, Bessemer, Cloquet, Cromwell, Crystal Falls, Duluth, Escanaba, Eveleth, Hancock, Hibbing, Iron River, Ironwood, Ishpeming, Keewatin, L'anse, Maple, Marquette, Mass City, Michigamme, Montreal, Negaunne, Pike River, Mamsay, Sault Ste.Marie, South Range, Stambaugh, Toivola, Trout Lake, Van Buskirk and Virginia.

In October 1930, the tiro traveled east through Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In New York John Rosendahl decided to quit the music business for a while to devote his time to speculation on the stock market. Viola and Sylvia teamed with accordionist Antti Kosola and turmpetist William (Vili) Syrjala to play at the Finnish Workers Hall in New York, where were billed as the Finnish Accordion Quarted.

By this time, depression had hit the recording industry, and the output of new recordings declined rapidly. Viola had not been called to the studios in 1930, but although record companies had now dropped most of their Finnish-American artists, the "Viola, Sylvia & John Instumental tiro" was invited to record five titles for Victor on August 3, 1931. Four of the titles were tratitional dance tunes, hut John now made his first and only vocal recording, a comic song called Neuvoja naimattomille (Advice to bachelors). The title was soon to prove auspicious.

After the recording session the traveled to Michigan, where they appeared at Finnish Halls. However, on November 11th the Finnish-American newspaper Raivaaja reported that Viola had started his own orchestra in Duluth. The reasons for the breakup were obvius. John has started a romantic relationsip with Sylvia, which Viola could not accept. In January 1932 John and Sylvia returned without Viola to New Jersey where they played a few dances, and then toured New England until they received a regular engagement at the Temple of Labor (Tyon Temppeli). a dance hall owned by Finnish-American communist organizations in New York.

Soon afterwards, John Rosendahl was killed in a freak accident. He slipped after taking a bath and broke his neck. Sylvia immediately took him to Harlem hospital where his life ended at 0.40 AM on January 18th, 1932. After John's death, Sylvia stayed in show business.

Meanwhile Viola has also returned to New York and joined Antti Kosola's orchestra at the nearby Finnish Workers Hall. Subsequently she teamed with William Syrjala and married him in 1933. The following year, June 18th 1934, they recorded six titles for Victor as the Viola Turpeinen Trio, with Syrjala on trumpet and Werner Birch (Koivunen) at the piano.

By this time, American record companies had for all practical purposes stopped recording immigrant artists. It was proof of Viola's huge popularity that in 1938 she was again called to the Victor studios in New York. This time she made her debut as a singer, accompanying herself on the accordion. The titles recorded were Unelma valssi (Dream waltz), written by William Syrjala, and Kahden venheessa (In a boat together), a current hit from Finland. In the coming years Viola was often featured as a singer, but none of her later recordings quite captures the haunting quality of Unelma valssi.

The remaining eight tracks on this CD are from 1945, when Viola has signed a new recording contract with Standard Records of New York. Her first recordings for the new company were instrumental dance tunes designed to appeal to a wider Scandinavian-American public. We will follow her career after 1945 in volume three of this series, which is scheduled to appear shortly.