Heikki Sarmanto

b. 22 June 1939, Helsinki, Finland. Sarmanto studied languages and music at Helsinki University and Sibelius Academy before going on to the Berklee College Of Music (1968-71). He was named the best pianist at Montreux in 1971. He led his own bands from 1962 and in 1976 a workshop group he ran became the big band UMO. He has written New Hope Jazz Mass, a jazz ballet and a jazz opera, and was chosen by saxophonist Sonny Rollins to arrange and orchestrate his Saxophone Concerto (1986). He continues to write vocal, orchestral and theatre works in a most assured style.