Introduction

My name is Juhana Lehtiniemi and I am a 30-year old Finnish film composer and independent animation and film maker. I've studied composition in England and after that I started a newly established master program in film music composition in Stockholm, Sweden. I graduated in 2010 with Master degree in film composition and I’ve been working professionally with different kinds of films, commercials and games. I recently finished my first feature film score for 'Bekas'.

Background

My musical history began when I started to play piano under the guidance of my dad. This was probably somewhere near the age of 9 or 10. During my teen years I started on a secondary instrument - accordion. My first achievement in composition was probably when when I won a national composition competition for Christian community songs, organized by Maata Näkyvissä -festival. That was somewhere around the age of 16. After graduating from the senior highschool, I used the following years trying out everything I had ever been interested in: computer programming, theatre, dancing (like ballet, modern, street and jazz dance), Kung Fu and finally ended up studying jazz piano. During my piano studies I received an opportunity to compose music for a 3-hour musical for a symphonic orchestra. I could easily spend days in a café, writing and orchestrating music, and I knew I had found my thing - I decided to become a composer!