Kari Ala-Pöllänen (b. 1940) is a versatile musician and educator with experience of folk music, jazz bands and symphony orchestras alike. Like his predecessor Erkki Pohjola, he has had a long and distinguished career as a music teacher. He is internationally known as a festival director and conductor of massed choirs, a lecturer, a seminar and workshop leader and a jury member at choir competitions. He has also been invited to become the first conductor of the National Children’s and Youth Choir of Guatemala and the Singapore National Junior College Choir. Before his appointment to the Tapiola Choir, he conducted the Vox Aurea children’s choir and the Sirkat male voice choir in Jyväskylä, Finland.

The Tapiola Choir released nine recordings during Kari Ala-Pöllänen’s tenure. The DVD detailing his education method, The Secrets of the Tapiola Sound (2006), has attracted particular interest worldwide.

It was during his time as conductor that the Tapiola Choir received one of its most important merits, the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Performing Arts (1996).

He has personally received several arts prizes, including Choir Conductor of the Year (Finnish Choir Conductors’ Association 1995) and the Klemetti Award (Finnish Amateur Musicians’ Association SULASOL 1997).

Having handed over the Tapiola Choir to his successor Pasi Hyökki in 2008, Kari Ala-Pöllänen continues to pursue an active international career as a visiting choir conductor, lecturer and choir competition jury member. He has also made and continues to make a significant contribution to the administration of the choral world. He chairs the choral section of the Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre (ESEK) and is the deputy chair of the Finnish Choir Conductors’ Association, a member of the Music Commission of Europa Cantat and the chair of the Songbridge Artistic Committee of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM).