Eero Koivistoinen one of the most renowned Finnish jazz musicians of all times, entered the music life of Finland in the mid-1960s.
Koivistoinen received the very first Georgie Award (1967) of the newly founded Finnish Jazz Federation. Since then, Koivistoinen has won several competitions for musicians and composers both abroad and in Finland. In the early 1970s Koivistoinen studied in the Sibelius Academy and Berklee School of Music in Boston, USA. Koivistoinen has been rewarded with a 15-year government grant for artists.
Koivistoinen is one of the UMO’s founder members. He was appointed Artistic Director of the UMO for a two-year period (1996 — 98). As a conductor, he is appreciated also outside Finland; he has conducted in countries such as Germany, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Iceland and South Africa.
Koivistoinen’s sizeable list of works includes hundreds of works, instrumental music for ensembles of various sizes, and vocal music. Among recent larger works is eg Round about Monk, an orchestral suite on the themes of Thelonius Monk arranged for a symphony orchestra, commissioned by RSO (Radio Symphony Orchestra).